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Letters of Ted Hughes edited by Christopher Reid | Book review

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Nov 08, 2009

Summary

Relentless daily trivia, the shackles of conformity and the "clamour of the world" were, for Ted Hughes, foes of the creative spirit. And Hughes the writer is the focus of this magnificent collection, which captivatingly explores the relationship between the man and his art.

Slating 20th-century English writing as "poison gas... numbing, smartening, trivialising, finally paralysing", Hughes championed the need for spontaneity and depth of sentiment. He considered poetry a means of confronting pain as a step towards healing.

The erudite, lyrical, generous letters wander inevitably into biography. Single turns of phrase can be penetrating, from Hughes's description of his marriage to Sylvia Plath as "a small nest of scorpions" to the devastation he felt ("giant steel doors shutting down over great parts of myself") after the suicides of Plath and his lover Assia Wevill.

Crippled with guilt over their deaths, Hughes berated himself unremittingly for the years wasted in "error and futile strife" which were, he believed, to the detriment of his work. Self-criticism o

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