Ted and I
A Brother's Memoir
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Anecdotal and immensely charming, Ted and I is a unique portrait of a shared childhood between Gerald Hughes and his younger brother Ted, one of the finest and best-loved poets of modern times. Ted's love for Gerald was probably one of the most enduring and sustaining forces in his life. Hughes brings alive a period when the two brothers would roam the countryside, camping, making fires, pitching tents, hunting rabbits, rats, wood pigeon and stoats. Ted's fascination with all wildlife subsequently fed directly into his sublime poetry. Gerald describes watching his brother evolving into a great poet and describes them continuing their relationship, even when many miles apart.
Containing a great many unique and never-before seen family photographs of Ted Hughes, as well as unpublished material, this extraordinary memoir is an achingly poignant tale of childhood and youth and togetherness; the tenderness of brotherly love and the development of a poetic mind as Hughes went into the air force, on to Cambridge where he published his first poems and met Sylvia Plath, before settling in Devon with Sylvia, where their children were born. Ted and I also features a foreword by Gerald's niece Frieda Hughes, the daughter of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath and herself a well-known painter and poet.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hughes's understated memoir chronicles his relationship with his younger brother, Ted, the esteemed British poet and husband to Sylvia Plath. Gerald tenderly sketches an idyllic childhood in rural Yorkshire, where the two boys roamed the hills and skipped rocks on the river as "life proceeded at a pleasant pace." In Gerald's account, Ted had a sense for language from a young age. "Fires can get up and bite you," he said after burning his hands on a flame. Gerald and Ted were separated in 1942 when Gerald joined the British Army and was dispatched to North Africa. He moved to Australia following the war, and his relationship with Ted unfolded mostly through letters. He also never met Plath, though they corresponded often after her marriage to Ted. Gerald recounts these years from a considerable distance, focusing on Ted's devotion to Plath and her affection toward him and their children. Writing of Plath's suicide, he emphasizes Ted's concern for his wife's health and his attempts to repair their marriage before her death. Gerald's pride in Ted's accomplishments is clear, as is his devotion to preserving his brother's memory. This account does not contain any startling revelations, but Gerald's fond recollections may give critics and fans new insight into a famed poet's work.
