Kristin Hersch is a good one! Similar, but not quite the same, you may like Isobel Campbell (particularly her collaborations with Mark Lanegan), or Missy Higgins.

I saw this recently and found it absolutely amazing. So much that we just don't consider when looking at collections. Definitely a way to kick-start necessary conversations and look at different ways to curate collections.

So they'd take H off had, he, haven't etc. but add it onto words like Ambulance.

They'd say orf, cawse (off/'cos).
We all lived in N.London (they were from Camden)

I also remembered asking "What's for tea?" and being told "Air pie an' niffit pudding"
Anyone familiar with that?

2. Conversely, his contemporary, Elizabeth Gaskell also wrote strong women. As the wife of a minster, her books were criticised, but she carried on anyway, and her clergyman husband backed her all the way.

Double standards were rife. I think Hardy captured the attitudes of the time well...
1. I understood that critics didn't like Hardy's strong women so he ended up writing to order, then stopped writing novels in a sort of mantrum and stuck to poetry because it was more well-received..

I always thought Angel Clare was a wrong 'un. He started out so well - typical "nice guy"; I think he'd be a great fan of all the fragile men and their Alpha posturing tiktoks.