Ted and I

October 13, 2014
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.

October 15, 2014
A warm recollection of a lauded poet.Hughes and his younger siblings, Olwyn and Ted, grew up in a Yorkshire village, moving to the mining town of Mexborough when Ted was 8 and the author 18. As young children, the two boys shared a love of the outdoors, camping in the woods, hunting with air rifles and especially fishing. Ted followed his older brother around devotedly, constantly asking questions. In Mexborough, though, their paths diverged, with the author leaving school to work in the wholesale clothing business, as a trainee fitter at the Bessemer Steel Works and, after an injury, as an auto mechanic. Olwyn and Ted, meanwhile, excelled in grammar school, won scholarships and headed to university. After serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II, the author decided to begin training with the Nottingham City Police Force. Discouraged by poor food and housing, he decided to leave for Australia, seduced by a travel agent's advertisement that read, "Come to the sun: migrate to Australia." He settled there for the rest of his life. From 1948 until Ted's death in 1998, the brothers saw each other only sporadically. Ted, of course, became famous for his poetry-he was poet laureate of England for 14 years-and his marriage to Sylvia Plath, which ended in her suicide. The author never met Plath, but he includes letters from his family describing their delight with her but also some concerns. Although Sylvia and Ted apparently were happy, they seemed not as "lively and cheery" as the author and his wife. Though he does not provide any analysis of his brother's work, Hughes reprints some of Ted's poems that have links to family experiences and notes works in his Collected Poems that are rooted in their childhood. Most of this understated memoir recounts the author's experiences and affection for his family, with some privileged glimpses into Ted's life.

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November 15, 2014
Gerald Hughes is Ted Hughes' older brother. Ted, Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, recipient of the Order of Merit, buried alongside T.S. Eliot in Westminster Abbey, is world renowned. Frieda Hughes, Ted's eldest child from his notorious marriage to Sylvia Plath, wrote the foreword to her uncle's warm memoir. With loving attention, Gerald dwells on their early life in rural Yorkshire. They had loving parents and a generous extended family who survived WWI and lived relatively well during the Great Depression. The brothers, marvelously close, had a wide world to roam as they hunted, fished, and observed wildlife. They took delight in building models and flying kites. Ted excelled in school. Even more interesting than Gerald's memories of Ted are stories from his time as an aircraft mechanic in the RAF, serving on remote airfields in North Africa. Not long after the war, Gerald immigrated to Australia. He records Ted's persistent efforts to get him to return to England to join in various idylls, namely farming schemes of varying success. This is a modest, heartfelt book.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014

What's it like to grow up with a younger brother who became one of the great poets of the 20th century? Hughes recounts a childhood spent tramping through the countryside with Ted, watching him emerge as a writer, and remaining close over decades and distances (Hughes lives in Australia). With an introduction by Frieda Hughes, the daughter of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath.

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