Ted Hughes

Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow was published in 1970 by Faber and Faber. It builds a dark mythic figure, Crow, through violent, comic, and creation-story-like poems rather than telling a conventional narrative.

The Iron Man was published in 1968 and became one of Hughes's best-known books for children. In the United States it was later known as The Iron Giant, which is also the title used for the 1999 animated film adaptation.

Birthday Letters appeared in 1998, the year Ted Hughes died. The collection is widely read as Hughes's most direct poetic response to Sylvia Plath, whom he married in 1956.

Hughes was appointed UK Poet Laureate in 1984 after John Betjeman. He held the role until his death in 1998, after which Andrew Motion became Laureate.