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Now this is done I can get back to Maggie's Anthology. Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters, 1998, Faber. This is an extraordinary literary event. Ted Hughes has written down the story of his life with Sylvia Plath in verse of the highest quality. Because of the relevancies of the material I find it very difficult to make a value-judgment on the quality of the poetry but I dont think I have ever seen him write better. I get the impression that much of the book was written in the 70s but it is hard to tell. The book was serialised in the London Times with tremendous publicity two weeks ago but I didnt hear about that till after the event. The bookshops are already stacked with copies and it is certain to be top of the sales charts. It is officially published tomorrow. This book makes everybody else's writing seem miniscule by comparison. I think only Douglas Dunn's `Elegies' from 1985 could be used as such. And they dont have the power in writing that Ted Hughes has. What I am wondering now is whether Ted HUghes is, in fact, a better poet than Sylvia Plath and that, at long last, he has come up with the goods. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%