Northern Earth Books
Northern Earth has revived its publishing wing after a hiatus in the 1990s, and offers writers in the field an opportunity for co-operative publishing. We invite enquiries regarding well-researched books free of political or religious agendas. We do not publish poetry or fiction.
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A Laureate's Landscape: Walks around Ted Hughes' Mytholmroyd
John Billingsley
Published by Northern Earth Books, 2007
46pp, 18 ills., 3 maps
ISBN 978 0 948635 04 5 £ 4.50 SOLD OUT
The late Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes, was born in Mytholmroyd in 1930, and the environment of his early years never ceased to exert an influence upon his writing.
In this book, John Billingsley leads the reader on two walks around the village of Mytholmroyd and up on to the moors that were such an inspiration for Hughes; along the way, he points out places and poems which feature in Hughes' literary memory of the area.
Whether the reader does the walks or not, the book can be enjoyed as a history of the 1930s in Mytholmroyd as well as a biography of Ted Hughes' childhood.
John Billingsley is editor of Northern Earth magazine and is a folklorist and local historian. His previous books have included Aspects of Calderdale, Folk Tales from Calderdale, and A Stony Gaze.
BBC Radio 4
Recently John Billingsley was asked to contribute to the BBC Radio 4 Programme "Ramblings" that featured Plath Hughes TX 210511.
On the first of a series of literary walks Clare Balding walks in Heptonstall, visiting Ted Hughes birth place and the resting place of Sylvia Plath.