Although I am secure in the fact that I am researching an area of the Hughes and Plath story that few have covered or recognised in detail, I was very aware that these two great poets engender a huge amount of interest. I felt privileged then to be one of the first researchers to take advantage of the addition of Liz Hicklin’s collection of letters from Ted Hughes. Because my work is on the Cambridge of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath I had informed Helen Melody of the British Library that I would like to see Hughes’s notes from that time. It was she who mentioned Liz’s letters and that the collection was only just about to be catalogued and released. I saw the collection and contacted Liz, now living in Australia, who helped me to understand the time and the relationship in Cambridge in the 1950’s. She calls Hughes and her time with him, “… the gift that keeps giving.” Whilst their relationship did not last, she thinks fondly of it and it is clear from the letters that the feeling was mutual. Many thanks to Helen and Callum of the British Library and Liz Hicklin/Grattidge.
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