This is the third episode of the podcast to focus on Ted Hughes's Gaudete, the book which distinguished British composer Stuart MacRae described in his programme note to his setting of eight parts of the poem as: 'Part film scenario, part nove

Ted Hughes's Gaudete: Grand Guignol and Folk Horror

Mar 20th, 2024 18m 47s

This is the second episode of the podcast to focus on Gaudete, the book which even admirers of Hughes often find his most puzzling and difficult. Gaudete began as a scenario for a film in 1962. According to Elaine Feinstein in her biograph

Poets from the Ted Hughes Society

Jan 25th, 2024 19m 29s

This podcast is rather different from the previous podcasts. Rather than consisting of either readings of poems or prose by Ted Hughes, or a talk or discussion focusing on some aspect of the work of Ted Hughes, this podcast pays tribute to the

Ted Hughes's 'Gaudete': the vacanas

Sep 29th, 2023 20m 28s

Ann Skea, expert on Ted Hughes and spirituality, the occult and the Goddess reflects on the vacanas, the short 'hymns and psalms to a nameless female deity' which end the epilogue to Gaudete (first published 1977). Introduced by Katherine Robin

Ted Hughes and the Pembroke College Archive

Jul 4th, 2023 54m 29s

This episode looks at the extensive and rapidly growing Ted Hughes archive which is housed at Hughes's old college, Pembroke College, Cambridge. Contributing to this podcast are Lizzy Einnon-Smith and Mark Wormald. The podcast is introduced by

Bonus

Ted Hughes and Religion part 3: 'The Casualty'

May 8th, 2023 13m 23s

In this episode, poet and retired schoolmaster David Day contributes to the theme of Ted Hughes and religion with a commentary on Hughes's early poem 'The Casualty' (The Hawk In The Rain (1957) Faber & Faber: p.49; Ted Hughes: Collected Poems e

Ted Hughes and Religion: part 2

Feb 19th, 2023 23m 15s

This is the second of two podcasts recorded with Dr. Mike Sweeting on the topic of Ted Hughes's relationship with religion - specifically Christianity. Mike concludes his observations with his thoughts on how some of Ted Hughes's later work - p

Ted Hughes and religion: part 1

Jan 5th, 2023 22m 49s

This is the first of two podcasts arising from conversations recorded with Dr Mike Sweeting on the topic of Ted Hughes’s relationship with religion. Mike's observations included Hughes’s fascination with various pagan and occult beliefs - rangi

Tales of wisdom, magic and fish: The Catch part 3

Oct 2nd, 2022 33m 18s

The third Ted Hughes Society Podcast centred around Mark Wormald's The Catch. In this episode, West Country storyteller and writer Martin Shaw retells the legend of The Salmon of Knowledge; scholar and poet Katherine Robinson tells to story o

The Kingfisher: 'The Catch' part 2

Aug 15th, 2022 25m 57s

In this, the second Ted Hughes Society Podcast, Mark Wormald and the poet, priest, musician, and scholar Malcolm Guite look in detail at Ted Hughes's poem, 'The Kingfisher', which can be found on page 70 of River (Faber & Faber, 1983), on page

'The Catch' part 1

Jul 11th, 2022 28m 40s

The first Ted Hughes Society podcast, in which we’ll be looking at Hughes’s love of the watery environments of river, pool, lake and seashore with the help of Mark Wormald, chair of the Ted Hughes Society, poet, critic, fellow at Hughes’s old c

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