The laughter of foxes - Keith Sagar

The Laughter of Foxes was the first study to be published after Hughes’ death, and therefore the first to survey the whole of Hughes’ achievement, including Birthday Letters. It contains a great deal of new information, including extracts from Hughes’ letters, and the first publication of the background story of Crow. There are chapters on the mythic imagination, on the poetic relationship between Hughes and Plath, and on the evolution of a Hughes poem through all its manuscript drafts. But the main purpose of the book is to attempt an adequate reading of Hughes’ poetry, revealing the underlying quest which transformed his imagination, leading him by painful stages from a vision of a world made of blood to a vision of a world made of light.

"Sagar’s style is both scholarly and accessible... essential reading for anyone passionate about the work of Hughes."—Erica Wagner, The Times