Flowers and Insects, Some Birds and a Pair of Spiders
Forty years after it was first published, Ted Hughes's Flowers and Insects, Some Birds and a Pair of Spiders is presented in a beautifully redesigned edition with a new introduction by the nature writer Tim Dee.
The sixteen poems gathered here brim and bristle with the life Hughes generates from the absolute attention he commits to whatever it is he is looking at. His knack for finding a language to animate its subject, without a trace of sentiment or nostalgia, singles out Hughes as one of the truly great poet-interpreters of the natural world.
This edition gives full justice to the subtlety of the original watercolour illustrations, produced by Hughes's long-term collaborator and friend, the American artist, Leonard Baskin.
Ted Hughes (1930-1998) was born in Yorkshire. His first book, The Hawk in the Rain, was published in 1957 by Faber & Faber and was followed by many volumes of poetry and prose for adults and children. He received the Whitbread Book of the Year for two consecutive years for his last published collections of poetry, Tales from Ovid and Birthday Letters. He was Poet Laureate from 1984, and in 1998 he was appointed to the Order of Merit.
Leonard Baskin (1922-2000) was an American sculptor, draughtsman and graphic artist, as well as founder of the Gehenna Press (1942-2000).
Tim Dee is a birdwatcher and nature writer. His books include, The Running Sky (2009) Four Fields (2013) and Greenery (2020).