Experts on Ted Hughes’ work will be coming to Mytholmroyd over the weekend of 21st - 23rd October to take part in this year's Ted Hughes Festival organised by The Elmet Trust. The Elmet Trust, under its Patron, Simon Armitage, celebrates Ted Hughes' connection with the locality which played such a central part in his poetry. 

"Academics and researchers who know Hughes' work always want to see the house and village in which he grew up and spent his early years," said Jeni Wetton, one of the Trust’s Directors.

The Elmet Trust are particularly pleased that Helen Broderick is coming from the British Library to talk about the place of correspondence within Ted Hughes’ archive, its significance and the way in which it should be seen in context with other parts of the archive such as literary drafts and  notebooks.  Helen Broderick is the curator of Modern Literary manuscripts at the British Library and spent the last few years cataloguing the Ted Hughes archive which is now a resource for scholars from around the world.

Following on the theme of letters, Ted Hughes’ friend, scholar and critic, Keith Sagar, will discuss his current work in which he is documenting his correspondence with Ted Hughes which took place over many years.  Hughes wrote 145 letters to Keith that probably represents the most important correspondence ever between a great writer and a critic.  Their relationship, however, extended to many areas beyond literature and can be seen in the titles of Keith’s earlier books: The Art of Ted Hughes, (1978) The Laughter of Foxes: A study of Ted Hughes (2000) and Ted Hughes and Nature: Terror and Exultation (2010)

Keith and Helen can be seen on Saturday 22nd October in The Erringden Room, Room (next to St. Michael’s Church), Mytholmroyd.

Before Keith and Helen’s talks there will be readings from three current Yorkshire poets, Andrew McMillan, Carola Luther and Gaia Holmes as part of the festivals continuing aim to honour Ted Hughes’ legacy by supporting and encouraging exciting new poetic talent from the area.
Tickets are £3 per event or £5 for an afternoon pass for five events. Light refreshments will be available throughout the afternoon and writers will be happy to sign their books.

“We are creating a poetry café for the afternoon: a place for people and books and the magic that happens between them”, said Mark Hinchliffe, one of the Trust’s Directors.

On Sunday 23rd October at 6pm in the Erringden Room, Mytholmroyd, the artist and poet, Noel Chanan, will show a revelatory documentary based on a previously unreleased audio recording made in 1983. In the documentary, Ted Hughes and American artist Leonard Baskin, talk about their profound friendship and its influence on their collaboration in such key works as Crow and Cave Birds. These beautifully illustrated poems are seen as some of the best of Hughes’ work. The film, by Noel Chanan, who was a friend of both Hughes and Baskin, incorporates extracts from readings by Hughes as well as many previously unseen photographs of the two and extensive illustrations of Baskin’s dramatic prints and sculptures.  This is a rare event and one that fans of Hughes’ poetry will be eager to see. 

Tickets are available from www.wegottickets.com or Hebden Bridge Visitor & Canal Centre, New Road, Hebden  Bridge, HX7 8AF. Tel: 01422 843831 Email: hebdenbridge@ytbtic.co.uk