Ted Hughes in Devon: Moortown

University of Exeter
Lecture Theatre 2
Queen’s Building
The Queen’s Drive
Streatham Campus
Exeter
EX4 4QH

In this lecture, Jo Gill discusses one of the most important - if least familiar - of Ted Hughes’s collections of poetry, the 1979 book Moortown.

Published at the mid-point of his career, Moortown represents a moment of quiet reflection for Hughes. Rooted in the Devon landscape and community that he had made his own, the poems of Moortown bear witness to personal, historical and environmental change.

The lecture offers readings of a number of key poems and draws on local and archival research in arguing for the centrality of this collection to Hughes’s achievement as a poet.

This lecture will be followed by the opportunity to ask questions at the end and the event is expected to last approximately one hour.

This event is part of the University of Exeter lecture series for Wordquest Devon.