The Iron Woman

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 (1997) and Birthday Letters (1998). He was Poet Laureate from 1984, and in 1998 he was appointed to the Order of Merit. Andrew Davidson graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1982 and his exquisite woodcuts and engravings have been in demand ever since. He has worked on an extraordinarily broad range of commissions, from Royal Mail stamps to Wimbledon's Centre Court doors and, of course, books.