Poet Zaffar Kunial explores Ted Hughes's personal obsession with dates and anniversaries.
Ted Hughes died in 1998, and we are still arguing about his legacy. In a new series of the Radio 3 Essay, leading poets bring a sharp eye to the poems themselves, reminding us why Hughes is regarded as one of the 20th-century's greatest writers, and exploring how the works match up to, inform and contradict what we know of the man.
Recorded at the BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival in Hull in 2018.
Written and read by Zaffar Kunial. Produced by Simon Richardson.