Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life

Jonathan Bate, Anne Farrar Donovan, Seamus Perry and Oliver Taplin
discuss life-writing, poetry and the poet To celebrate the
publication of Jonathan Bate's new biography Ted Hughes: The
Unauthorised Life we were joined by a distinguished panel to
discuss life-writing, poetry and the poet. Seamus Perry (Professor
of English Literature, University of Oxford) explores Hughes's
seductive personality and poetry, and his 'genius for
mythologisation', and describes how Jonathan Bate's new biography
humanises Ted Hughes. Oliver Taplin (Former Fellow and Tutor of
Classics at Magdalen College, University of Oxford) discusses
Hughes's fertile and unapologetic engagement with the literature of
Ancient Greece and Rome, and his direct and fruitful engagement
with the theatre. Anne Farrar Donovan (cousin of Ted Hughes) shares
her memories of Ted Hughes and the Farrar family and of Hughes's
time in Heptonstall. In response to audience questions, Jonathan
Bate (Provost of Worcester College and Professor of English
Literature, University of Oxford) describes how his opinion of
Hughes has changed since embarking on the project and the ethics of
biography.