Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate, was one of the greatest writers of the
twentieth century. He was one of Britain's most important poets.
With an equal gift for poetry and prose, he was also a prolific
children's writer and has been hailed as the greatest English
letterwriter since John Keats. His magnetic personality and insatiable
appetite for friendship, love, and life also attracted more scandal than
any poet since Lord Byron. His lifelong quest to come to terms with the
suicide of his first wife, Sylvia Plath, is the saddest and most
infamous moment in the public history of modern poetry.
Hughes left behind a more complete archive of notes and journals than
any other major poet, including thousands of pages of drafts,
unpublished poems, and memorandum books that make up an almost complete
record of Hughes's inner life, which he preserved for posterity.
Renowned scholar Jonathan Bate has spent five years in the Hughes
archives, unearthing a wealth of new material. His book offers, for the
first time, the full story of Hughes's life as it was lived, remembered,
and reshaped in his art.