Terry Gifford is a pioneering ecocritic and Ted Hughes scholar. He is co-author (with Neil Roberts) of Ted Hughes: A Critical Study (1981) and author of Reconnecting With John Muir: Essays in Post-Pastoral Practice (2006). He is Visiting Professor at the University of Chichester, UK, and Profesor Honorario at the Universidad de Alicante, Spain.

• Contents Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Life and Contexts 2. Works 3. Criticism Conclusion Chronology Further Reading Works by Ted Hughes Select Bibliography Index

'This is the best short overview of Hughes’s career that I’ve read[...]Gifford’s volume will, I am sure, come to be recognised as the best starting point for anyone planning serious study of Hughes' - Laurence Coupe, Green Letters'Drawing on recently available archival research and letters, Gifford has provided richness, complexity, and new contexts to his interpretations of Hughes's writing. Gifford is also one of the few critics to offer a provocative, yet reasonable, assessment of Hughes's controversial reputation' - Carol Bere, Isle