What did I learn from Thomas Hardy? Great characters don’t need a back story | Adrian Chiles

In the 21st century, we are used to picking through the psychological pain and peril of all our fictional heroes. Perhaps we should stop

You never know art better than that which you're forced to study as a teenager. For my O-level in music I had no choice but to listen in some detail to Malcolm Arnold's Four Scottish Dances, Beethoven's Pathetique piano sonata and Faure's Requiem. For a lad obsessed with the likes of Led Zeppelin, at the time this represented a traumatic listening experience. But it taught me a valuable lesson: if you're exposed to any piece of art long enough, eventually it will move you. No pain, no gain, possibly. I've loved all three pieces ever since. OK, I failed the O-level, but I can hardly see it as a failure given it opened up a whole genre of music I might have missed. The Requiem has been particularly important to me. I listen to it driving home from the football whenever my team have lost. I listen to it often.

As far as literature is concerned, Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge was a different kettle of fish. I loved it from page one. The first three paragraphs alone still make me want to applaud with my hands above my head, like I do when my team take to the field. Exactly 40 years since my O-level English literature exam (passed, with a grade A, since you ask), I decided to re-read it. Some passages feel as familiar as my name and address, while others - concerning the plot, mainly - ring no bells at all. Weird.