Moortown Diary

Originally published in 1979, Moortown Diary is the updated version of Ted Hughess acclaimed Devon farming sequence, written over a period of several years during which he was spending almost every day outside, either gardening or farming. The introduction and notes (added in 1989) sketch in the background from which these remarkable poems emerged as an improvised verse journal, sparely edited, coalescing spontaneously on the page.

Moortown Diary keeps its eye firmly on the creatures behind the language. Its written in the style of Hughess play translations: very swift and bright and urgent and speakable...Hughes strips away the protective layers - the soundproofed ears, the double-glazed eyes - that prevent us making contact with anything outside ourselves. Right now, I cant think of anything more important than that kind of poem. Because were not just here to think about literature. Were here to try to wake up. Alice Oswald, The Guardian

It grips your heart, and your intestines, like a vice from the first page. He makes language as physical as a bruise, and in these poems beauty and tenderness blend with violence. John Carey, Sunday Times

The Moortown sequence includes some of Hughess finest poems...They are like no other poems I have read, with a degree of intensity, sanity and grace that he has never equalled. Anthony Thwaite, Times Literary Supplement