This friendly, familial atmosphere was affirmed in the exchange between Bate and Anne Farrar Donovan, Hughes’ cousin. The audience members, participating in the form of smiles and nods of agreement, were invited along too.

Though intimate, the gathering was far from exclusive. Taplin linked both to events in Hughes’ life, suggesting that a parallel existed in the latter, for example, between the suicide of Alcestis and that of his first wife Sylvia Plath.Įach speaker peppered their brief presentation on the poet with anecdotes, giving the talk the feel of a reunion: long-term acquaintances meeting in memory of a friend. Oliver Taplin, Fellow and Tutor in Classics at Magdalen College, focused on Hughes’ rewriting of Classical drama, particularly Aeschylus’ Oresteia and Euripides’ Alcestis. Seamus Perry, Head of the English Faculty at the University of Oxford, described Ted Hughes as a Romantic figure, akin to Byron or Shelley, while hinting that Bate’s biography succeeded in reviving a human portrait of the poet. Bate, Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford, was joined by a panel of Hughes experts, each of whom focused on a different aspect of his oeuvre and reputation, casting light on the many shades of Hughes’ life and poetry. On Friday 16th October, scholar Jonathan Bate explored the relationship between his life and work, discussing his recent biography, Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life, in a talk organised by TORCH (The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities). Ted Hughes was one of the most prominent British poets of the twentieth century, scrutinised as much for his high-profile personal life as for his work.

Ted hughes by jonathan bate