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.
