New York Times’s 10 Best Books of 2021: Yorkshire author's 'daring' book makes prestigious list

Heather Clark’s Red Comet: The Short and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath was released in October 2020.

Plath, who took her life at the age of 30 in 1963 following the breakdown of her marriage to Yorkshire poet and former Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and her relationship with Hughes has been the subject of controversy and speculation since her death.

Prof Clark, who works at the University of Huddersfield, said: “I could not have undertaken my research on Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath in England without the financial and practical help of the University’s Ted Hughes Network.

“I hope the book’s success brings attention to the Network’s efforts to promote the work and life of Hughes and other Yorkshire writers.”

The New York Times praised Ms Clark’s book, stating: “It’s daring to undertake a new biography of Plath, whose life, and death, have been thoroughly picked over by scholars. Yet this meticulously researched and, at more than 1,000 pages, unexpectedly riveting portrait is a monumental achievement.

“Determined to rescue the poet from posthumous caricature as a doomed madwoman and ‘reposition her as one of the most important American writers of the 20th century,’ Clark, a professor of poetry in England, delivers a transporting account of a rare literary talent.”