Welcome to the Ted Hughes Society podcast.
As you may know, one of Ted Hughes’s first books, published in 1961, was Meet My Folks, a collection of humourous poems for children about an imagined family. Having reached episode 26 of this podcast, it seems time to introduce to some of our folks - the officers of the Ted Hughes Society, who are responsible for such things as building and updating the society’s website; compiling the excellent bibliography which is one of the features of the website; organising the forthcoming conference at Pembroke College, Cambridge this coming September; and acquiring new items for the rapidly growing archive of books and other items associated with Ted Hughes, which is housed at Pembroke, and some choice items from which are now on show in two joint exhibitions at Pembroke College and the Cambridge University Library.
The guests for this episode are Catherine Macnaughton and Anna Stevenson - the editor and designer, respectively, of our two regular publications, the peer reviewed academic journal Ted Hughes Studies, and Recklings, the newsletter for members of the Ted Hughes Society which is being put together as this podcast episode is released and will be emailed to society members soon.
Catherine Macnaughton is the editor of both Ted Hughes Studies and Recklings, and has a professional background in newspaper and magazine journalism. She recently returned to university to study English Literature and has an MA from the University of Cambridge and from University College London.
Dr Anna Stevenson is production designer for Ted Hughes Studies and Recklings at the Ted Hughes Society, and the host of the Ted Hughes Society's Book Club. She is also a trustee at the Philip Larkin Society and currently works at the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull. Anna has been a student at the university for ten years. During this time, she completed both her Bachelors and Master of Arts in English and has also recently graduated from her PhD in English, with a thesis titled 'My Sacred Canon': The Influence of Shakespeare, W.B. Yeats, and T.S. Eliot on the Young Ted Hughes'. Anna has strong family ties to Patrington, Holderness, where Ted Hughes did National Service, before her studying at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and where Anna's interest in Ted Hughes's connections with the area resides.
if you have any comments about the podcast, any suggestions for furture episodes, or would like any information on the Ted Hughes Society, please contact me by email at membership@thetedhughesssociety. I look forward to hearing from you, and please do subscribe, rate and review this podcast; it does help others who might be interested in poetry, or the work of Ted Hughes, to find the podcast.
The opening and closing music is from Beethoven's String Quartet No 14, opus 131, performed by the Orion String Quartet. (The extract is reproduced under Creative Commons licence IMSLP: Creative Commons Atribution Non-commercial No Derivative 3.0.)
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