Sunday 6 July 2008

 

The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Liz Anderson

Liz suggests


Letters of Ted Hughes

This splendid, brave, mad imagination

Christopher Reid
Faber, 800pp, £30,
Philip Hensher
Wednesday, 24th October 2007

Philip Hensher

Your email address:   
Friend's email address:   
   

The last letter in Ted Hughes’s collected letters is to his aunt Hilda, recounting the way in which the Queen awarded him, two weeks before his death, the Order of Merit. It reads like a dream of wish-fulfilment:

Then I gave [the Queen] a copy of Birthday Letters — and she was fascinated. I told her how I had come to write it, & even more so how I had come to publish it. I felt to make contact with her as never before. She was extremely vivacious & happy-spirited — more so than ever before. I suppose, talking about those poems, I was able to open my heart more than ever before — and so she responded in kind.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6  Next page 

Subscribe now

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Comments

Post a comment


Your comment:*

Your name:*

Your email address:*
(We won't publish this)

*Required information

Please click the button only once - your comment will not be published immediately

Ben

December 5th, 2007 12:16am

'in English'? don't you mean 'English poet'? and anyway Geoffrey Hill is greater.

Related articles

Getting to know the General

Carey Schofield

Carey Schofield reviews Mohammed Hanif's new book

All you need to know about Wales

Byron Rogers

Byron Rogers reviews an encyclopedia of Wales

A keen sense of duty

Leanda de Lisle

Leande De Lisle on Stephen Alford's biography of William Cecil

Distinctions and likenesses

Philip Hensher

Philip Hensher on Paul Fisher's portrait of the James family

Wit and wisdom

William Skidelsky

William Skidelsky on a collection of W.H. Auden's prose

Spectator recommends

Sky - Official Site

Build your own Sky package online. Sky TV, Broadband & Talk only £16.

Sky TV, Broadband & Talk from £16 a Month

Sky TV & free broadband packages available from £16 a month. Choose from a standard free sky box, sky plus...


Spectator classifieds

ROME CENTRE

PORTA METRONIA, ROME Standing high on the top of one of the seven hills of Rome- the Coelian- this unique

City Breaks. ROME and PARIS

ROME and PARIS: over 350 holiday rentals apartments listed: visit  www.romanreference.com  and  www.parisreference.com or call +39 0648 903612.

Jewellery. RUFFS (Estd. 1904).

Goldsmiths by Design Welcome to Ruffs!  You have found a company of Goldsmiths that specialises in the manufacture, amongst other