Under the Greenwood Tree

'Under the Greenwood Tree' concerns the activities of a group of church musicians, the Mellstock parish choir, one of whom, Dick Dewy, becomes romantically entangled with a comely new school mistress, Fancy Day. The novel opens with the fiddlers and singers of the choir-including Dick, his father Reuben Dewy, and grandfather William Dewy-making the rounds in Mellstock village on Christmas Eve. When the little band plays at the schoolhouse, young Dick falls for Fancy at first sight. Dick, smitten, seeks to insinuate himself into her life and affections, but Fancy's beauty has gained her other suitors, including a rich farmer and the new vicar at the parish church. This is one of Thomas Hardy's most loved works and it has been adapted for the screen several times, most notably in an ITV TV-series from 2005 featuring Keely Hawes as Fancy Day and James Murray as Dick Dewy.