Former poet laureate Ted Hughes was in bed with his new lover the night Sylvia Plath killed herself, new biography claims 

  • Sir Jonathan Bate has written new biography of poet laureate Ted Hughes
  • Used unseen diaries to piece together final days of his wife Sylvia Plath 
  • Claims he was in bed with lover Susan Alliston when she killed herself 

By Sam Matthew for MailOnline

Published: 11:24 EST, 27 September 2015 | Updated: 12:31 EST, 27 September 2015

Ted Hughes was in bed with his new lover on the night his estranged first wife Sylvia Plath killed herself, a new biography claims.

The new book by Sir Jonathan Bate claims the former poet laureate was with Susan Alliston at his London flat.

The Oxford academic has pieced together Plath's final days in February 1963 using papers, archive material, and unseen diaries.

Sylvia Plath

A new biography claims former poet laureate Ted Hughes, left, was in bed with his new lover when his estranged wife Sylvia Plath, right,  killed herself

Sir Jonathan also interviewed several women who had relationships with Hughes for the tome, according to the Sunday Times.

Bates claims that on the weekend of Plath's death she sent an 'enigmatic parting letter' to Hughes.

As a result Hughes rushed to Plath's London home on the Friday and she was said to have snatched the letter away and burnt it.

It was this encounter Hughes turned into the Last Letter, which was published five years ago.

'This was their final face-to-face which Ted turned into Last Letter,' Bate told the newspaper.

'This explains that poem.' 

Last Letter begins with the line: 'What happened that night? Your final night?' 

It ends with the line: 'your wife is dead.' 

The following day, Plath made a number of phone calls to Hughes which were overheard by Alliston.

In her diary she wrote Hughes - who separated from Plath a year earlier - told her 'take it easy, Sylvie,' wrote Alliston.

That night, Hughes took Alliston to the London flat where he had first spent his wedding night with his estranged wife.

He wanted to avoid more interruptions from his estranged wife.

Hughes and Plath had two children together. 

Fatal attraction: Sylvia Plath met Ted Hughes at Cambridge University and married him only months later

Fatal attraction: Sylvia Plath met Ted Hughes at Cambridge University and married him only months later

On the Monday he learned that Plath was dead. She had killed herself at just 30 years of age.

Bates writes that Plath's death shaped the rest of Hughes' life.

'However hard he attempted to get away from it, he never could,' the author said according to the Sunday Times.

Plath met Hughes at Cambridge University.

She was just 23 and wrote in her diary after their first encounter that he was  a ‘big, dark, hunky boy.’

The couple married on June 16, 1956, four months after that first meeting.

Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life - due to published next month. 

 

 

 

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