Ted Hughes's Birthday Letters are addressed, with just two exceptions, to Sylvia Plath, the American poet to whom he was married. They were written over a period of more than twenty-five years, the first a few years after her suicide in 1963, and represent Ted Hughes's only account of his relationship with Plath and of the psychological drama that led both to the writing of her greatest poems and to her death. The book became an instant bestseller on its publication in 1998 and won the Forward Prize for Poetry in the same year.

'To read [Birthday Letters] is to experience the psychic equivalent of "the bends". It takes you down to levels of pressure where the undertruths of sadness and endurance leave you gasping.' Seamus Heaney

'Even if it were possible to set aside its biographical value . . . its linguistic, technical and imaginative feats would guarantee its future. Hughes is one of the most important poets of the century and this is his greatest book.' Andrew Motion

Birthday Letters is Ted Hughes's bestselling collection of poems exploring his marriage to Sylvia Plath.

About the Author
Ted Hughes (1930-1998) was born in Yorkshire. His first book, The Hawk in the Rain, was published in 1957 by Faber and Faber and was followed by many volumes of poetry and prose for adults and children, including The Iron Man (1968). He received the Whitbread Book of the Year for both Tales from Ovid (1997) and Birthday Letters (1998). He was Poet Laureate from 1984, and in 1998 he was appointed to the Order of Merit.

Awards
Winner of T S Eliot Prize 1999 and Whitbread Book Awards: Book of the Year 1998 and Whitbread Book Awards: Poetry Category 1998 and Forward Poetry Prize 1998 and Forward Poetry Prize: Best Collection 1998.



Book Information
ISBN 9780571194735
Author Ted Hughes
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint Faber & Faber
Publisher Faber & Faber
Weight(grams) 240g
Dimensions(mm) 200mm * 132mm * 17mm