Tonight in my capacity as local councillor am going to the launch of Ted Hughes Festival in neighbouring village of Mytholmroyd. This area punches way above its weight in terms of arts events and this one is no exception with luminaries like Simon Armitage lined up.
Round here, the number of people who claim to have known Ted as a boy is frankly far in excess of reality but he was indeed a local lad who I have always thought to be unfairly demonised by many. Up the Valley, the Arvon Foundation at his former home , Lumb Bank, continues to be a beacon for encouraging writing talent. Just a 20-minute ( very strenuous ) walk from my home is Heptonstall and the grave of his troubled wife and fellow poet Sylvia Plath . And , more happily, a short stroll away is the Stubbing Wharf pub about which Ted wrote a poem. Might be an idea to get the new landlord to ask permission for said poem to be commemorated with plaque or something similar. And, given the rubbish weather which looks set for the next couple of days, a good excuse to meander there over the weekend.
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