Ted Hughes The Unauthorized Biography by Jonathan Bate (2015)

Born August 17, 1930, died October 28, 1998- U. K.

Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom December 28, 1984 to death

Married Sylvia Plath June 16, 1956 to February 11, 1963 

Ted Hughes The Unauthorized Biography by Jonathan Bate is one of the best literary biographies I have so far read.  I think in the broader culture he is probably best known as the husband of Sylvia Plath.  Her suicide became a dominating event in his subsequent Life history.  

As of this moment I am dealing with a painful strength depleting lingering illness.  Ordinarily I would try to do a post worthy of this great book about a greater poet.  Hughes was a larger than life figure, two women in his life killed themselves as did his oldest son.  He was deeply into the reading life, a good friend of Seamus Heaney, close to the Queen of England.  He was a man of great depth.  Bate quotes generously from his poetry.  Hughes left an archive of over 100,000 pages.  He loved fishing, nature, farming, Ovid and Shakespeare.  He loved women and the feeling was reciprocated.  Bate takes us far into the world of Hughes.  We see him as a father, a husband, a teacher, a reader, a business man managing the estate of Sylvia Plath, and a friend.  We see him struggle to write and continually revising his work.  He created some of the most powerful poetry of the English language.

I am very glad I read this book.

Mel u

"Rain Horse" by Ted Hughes

"Rain Horse" by Ted Hughes (1995, 20 pages)

Please consider joining us for Irish Short Stories Week Year Two March 12 to March 22

Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath

Edward -Ted-Hughes (1930 to 1998-UK) was the poet laureate of the United Kingdom from 1884 until his death in 1998.   He is perhaps most known now as the husband of Sylvia Plath.   He wrote mostly poems and children's books but he also wrote some short stories, among them "Rain Horse".

I recently acquired a Kindle edition of The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories edited  and with a very good introduction by Malcolm Bradbury.    I was very happy to see that a short story by Ted Hughes, a new to me writer, was included in the collection.  (My page lengths on Kindle edition books are just an estimate, they can go up and down depending on the print size you select.)

As the story opens a man, the only person in the story, is walking down a country road.   He is returning to a farm he left twelve years ago.   Suddenly a horse seems to be watching him, almost stalking him.    The horse seems to be intently looking at him.    To compress a bit, the horse begins to behave to him in a threatening fashion.

He tries to evade the horse but he follows him down the road, acting in an increasingly threatening way.  It begins to rain and he seek shelter.   The horse somehow seems personally intent on harming him.   He begins to fear the horse may be mad.   He picks up some rocks and throws them at the horse, hitting him several times but the horse only retreats a bit.   He then begins to throw even more rocks at the horse but cannot hit him.

As the story ends and he reaches the horse barn where he spent time twelve years ago he begins to wonder if any of this really happened.


"Rain Horse" was, as one would expect, a beautifully written story.   It leaves us to ponder what the symbolic meaning of the horse might be.

I am glad I read this story.

Mel u