*WINNER OF THE SLIGHTLY FOXED PRIZE 2021* 'Surely the final, the definitive, biography of Sylvia Plath' Ali Smith

The first biography of this great and tragic poet that takes advantage of a wealth of new material, this is an unusually balanced, comprehensive and definitive life of Sylvia Plath. Each chapter reads with the ease of a novel. Featuring illuminating readings of Plath's poems, Red Comet brings us closer than ever to the spirited woman and visionary artist who blazed a trail that still lights the way for women the world over. We see Plath's early relationships and determination not to become a conventional woman and wife we witness her Cambridge years and thunderclap meeting with Ted Hughes and, through clear-eyed portraits of the demonised players in the arena of her suicide, we gain a deeper understanding of her final days. Refusing to read Plath's work as if her every act was a harbinger of her fate, Clark evokes a culture in transition in the mid-twentieth century as she thoroughly explores Sylvia's world.

'Surely the final, the definitive, biography of Sylvia Plath' Ali Smith *WINNER OF THE SLIGHTLY FOXED PRIZE 2021* *A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE DAILY TELEGRAPH AND THE TIMES * *FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE IN BIOGRAPHY 2021* Drawing on a wealth of new material, Heather Clark brings to life the great and tragic poet, Sylvia Plath.

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