The Ted Hughes Network, University of Huddersfield

We're happy to draw attention to a new organisation which has been set up at the University of Huddersfield: The Ted Hughes Network.

The Ted Hughes Network will be based in the English and Creative Writing subject area in the School of Music, Humanities & Media. Its Director is Steve Ely (s.ely@hud.ac.uk) and Dr James Underwood is the Network’s Research Fellow.

The Ted Hughes Network intends to develop new approaches that will enhance Hughes studies, develop Hughes’s public profile and create more opportunities for academic and non-academic audiences to engage with Hughes’s work.   With that in mind the Ted Hughes Network will:

•           Develop teaching and research related to Hughes’s work at the University of Huddersfield

•           Host an annual Ted Hughes-based symposium at the University

•           Sponsor an annual Ted Hughes lecture at the University

•           Sponsor an annual International Visiting Fellowship at the University

•           Develop and digitise archival materials

•           Develop a range of public and outreach events arising from academic work — lectures, readings, performances, the development of a ‘Ted Hughes Trail’ and links with community groups and schools.

Seven Crows (no longer) a Secret

A real rarity has surfaced on Youtube... This is a short film made by John Forrest for the National Film Board of Canada in 1994 on the natural history of corvids, Seven Crows a Secret. This film, long since out of print, is well known - but rarely seen - amongst Hughes scholars for featuring not only a fascinating interview with the artist Leonard Baskin discussing his art works about crows, but also one of the very few existing pieces of footage of Ted Hughes, in which he reads from his Crow poems and discusses the mythic history of the crow.

NFB documentary on those pesky black birds...

You can find the original VHS packaging and a teacher's guide to the film at the National Film Board of Canada's website.

Many thanks to Ann Skea (http://ann.skea.com/THHome.htm) for finding this wonderful resource.

Ted Hughes Books for Sale

The Ted Hughes Society is pleased to announce a new benefit for its members - the chance to purchase rare, out-of-print, difficult to find and just plain useful books on Hughes from other members. The idea behind this new page on our website (which you can find under our 'Research' tab - or just click here) is to enable members to access important books on Hughes which would otherwise be difficult to obtain. International members are particularly welcome to make use of this service, as many of these books are not published or are usually available in all countries.

If you have books which you would like to offer for sale to other members of the Society, please get in touch with us and we'll be happy to list them. But please bear in mind that the purpose of this listing is to make resources available to researchers working on Hughes who might otherwise not be able to access these books, and so we hope all books will be offered at a price with that aim in mind.

Please note that all transactions will be organised by the individuals offering books for sale, and that the Ted Hughes Society accepts no responsibility for these private transactions.

Ted Hughes and the Todmorden Folk Festival

Hughes's work continues to be of great interest to performers in a range of art-forms, and the latest to take on his poetry is folk music. The Todmorden Folk Festival (15th-17th April 2016) will be featuring the world-premiere of Gareth Scott's commissioned piece 'This is from The Remains of Elmet'. A musician from the Calder valley, Gareth's songs will be responding to Hughes's verse, particularly his 1979 collection Remains of Elmet.

Further details of the performance and details about the Todmorden Folk Festival can be found here: http://todfolkfest.co.uk/content/remains-elmet-gareth-scott. 

The Elmet Trust - New Issue of the Elmetian

Over at the Elmet Trust, they've just issued the latest edition of their newsletter, The Elmetian. This would be well worth checking out for any reader of Hughes, particularly those interested in his roots in the Calder valley.

Link: http://www.theelmettrust.org

New Perspectives Theatre Company - The Tiger's Bones and Other Stories

The New Perspectives Theatre Company are about to embark on a UK tour of their new production The Tiger's Bones and Other Stories: a performance bringing together three of Ted Hughes's plays for children. The tour is running from 20th February to 9th April 2016 and would be well worth checking out for any reader of Hughes, whatever their age. For more information see the New Perspectives website: The Tiger's Bones and Other Stories.

New Ted Hughes Society Journal Issue, Website and Subscription Renewal

The Ted Hughes Society is pleased to announce the publication of the new issue of The Ted Hughes Society Journal (Volume V. 1), which brings together a first collection of outstanding papers from our Sheffield conference, along with reviews of the new books on Hughes and Hughes-related topics recently published. The journal issue is available to Society members now (Volume V. 2 will be published later in 2016).

Along with the new issue of the Journal, we're also happy to launch our new, updated website. The site will feature regular updates and news on Hughes and his work, and will provide an invaluable resource for all readers of Hughes.

Finally, we're also making some small changes to our membership procedure and would like to invite members to renew their subscriptions, and welcome new members who are joining us for the first time. For more details please see the Join section of our website.

Ted Hughes Society Award Announced

The Ted Hughes Society and the Sheffield International Ted Hughes Conference Committee have pleasure in announcing that the winner of the £100 prize for the most outstanding conference paper is awarded to David Troupes (Sheffield University) whose paper, “Putting the Primitive in Primitive Methodism”, will be published in the forthcoming issue of Ted Hughes Society Journal.

Of David’s paper the judges said: ‘David Troupes contributes original research to his reading of familiar texts and combines this with an elegant argument, whilst correcting some confusions around discussions of Methodism and handling contradictory opinions in his sources with thoughtful clarity. This is a mature, original and well structured paper.’

Ted Hughes: Dreams as Deep as England

'Ted Hughes: Dreams as Deep as England', the seventh international conference devoted to the poet’s work, was held at Sheffield University from 9-12 September 2015, and hosted by the University’s School of English; the organising committee was chaired by Neil Roberts, to whom particular thanks are due.

Sixty delegates assembled for three fascinating days of parallel sessions of papers on many aspects of Hughes’s writing. Highlights included a poetry reading by Simon Armitage, a keynote lecture by Seamus Perry on ‘Hughes’ Urbanity’, and a conversation with Jonathan Bate about his book Ted Hughes: the Unauthorised Life, published in October by HarperCollins. Steve Ely, author of Made in Mexborough: Ted Hughes’s South Yorkshire, led a tour for delegates of the places and landscapes where Hughes lived from the age of eight to twenty-one, and where he became a poet.

The next two issues of the Ted Hughes Society Journal, to be published in January and July 2016, will include a selection of papers from the Sheffield Conference and reviews of recent publications. The journal welcomes contributions on any aspect of Hughes’s life and work; authors of papers are invited to consult the journal’s submission guidelines.