Wintering

The story of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes is one of the best-known, well-documented and controversial in the annals of poetry, romance and tragedy, yet the sequence of poems in Plath's volume Ariel, which seems to work inexorably towards her suicide, was rearranged for publication by Hughes. Using Plath's original order as a framework, this novel recreates her last months, beginning with her initial elation at moving from Devon to London following Hughes' departure and ending as she prepares optimistically for spring's rebirth. It is a searing story of resurrection, female power and hope, told with remarkable empathy and sensibility and bringing to life a woman of precious gifts.