Terry Gifford is an ecocritic and poet, the author of Ted Hughes (Routledge, 2009), Reconnecting With John Muir: Essays in Post-Pastoral Practice (University of Georgia Press, 2006), Pastoral (Routledge, 1999) and Green Voices: Understanding Contemporary Nature Poetry (Manchester University Press, 1995; second edition CCC Press, 2011), together with six chapters in books on Ted Hughes. His seventh collection of poems is (with Christopher North) Al Otro Lado del Aguilar (Oversteps Books, 2011). Author of The Joy of Climbing (Whittles, 2004), he is also a trustee of the UK's Mountain Heritage Trust.

• Chronology; Introduction Terry Gifford; 1. The problem of biography Joanny Moulin; 2. The debates about Hughes Paul Bentley; 3. Hughes and animals Chen Hong; 4. Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath Jo Gill; 5. The anthropologist's uses of myth Rand Brandes; 6. Hughes's social ecology Terry Gifford; 7. Hughes and feminism Tracy Brain; 8. Hughes and the Classics Vanda Zajko; 9. Hughes as prose writer Neil Corcoran; 10. Hughes on Shakespeare Jonathan Bate; 11. Class, war and the Laureateship Neil Roberts; 12. Hughes and his critics Alex Davis; Guide to further reading; Index.

' … offers intelligent and vital criticism on a writer whose reputation has flourished since his death over a decade ago. it [is] likely to be an essential aid for students and scholars of Hughes's writings, and one which will become the new touchstone in Hughes as the interest in his writings proliferates and becomes increasingly diverse.' The Ted Hughes Society Journal