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Peter Riley wrote: > I do get the impression that Birthday Letters might be > the best he has ever written. One thing I noticed in a couple of the poems printed (with crass gossipy notes) in the Times was that the poems are strong where I'd always thought Hughes was weak - precise evocation of people, houses, clothes. Before, I'd always thought he did so many animals because he just wasn't good at people and the social world (remember the terrible sub-Laurentian Gaudete). But the description of fifties England, and of Sylvia when he first met her seemed very good indeed. Has anyone read the whole book yet? I gave up with the Times because i was so annoyed by the soapy headlines they gave each poem : Demons start to niggle, for instance, in place of Hughes's own more restrained "55 Eltisley". George -- ____________________________ George Simmers SNAKESKIN webzine is at http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~simmers %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%