Never-before-seen handwritten poems by the late poet show his grief after his partner’s suicide, just six years after his first wife Sylvia Plath’s. A series of unpublished poems written by Ted Hughes immediately after the tragic deaths of Assia Gutmann Wevill and their daughter Alexandra Tatiana Elise, known as Shura, might change the prevalent view of Ted Hughes as a […]
www.goodreads.com/review/show/3604556589 I was touched by this review from an unknown reader. It reminds me that readers are still enjoying Capriccio, the fictionalised biography of Assia Gutmann Wevill, the notorious mistress of Poet Laureate Ted Hughes and rival of famous poetess Sylvia Plath. Thank you so much to all of you who’ve taken the time to read my book, and especially to those who’ve given it such positive reviews since its publication in 2018 by Cilento Publishers. This year Capriccio:A Novel was shortlisted for the fiction prize in the 2020 NT Chief Minister’s Book Awards, reinforcing the rewarding feedback from you, my readers. Now in its second edition with additional material, including an epilogue and bibliography, Capriccio:A Novel can be purchased from Amazon, Booktopia or Goodreads in hardback, paperback, or digital format. Order now at: amazon.com/author/dinadavis
Hi Friends and Followers, Recently I was given the opportunity to give a author talk on Zoom, through Randwick City Library in NSW Australia. Even though I was 4,000 km away in Darwin, NT, the TopEnd of Oz, I felt as if I were in the same room as Helene and my guests, who tuned in online through the miracle […]
In his article on the original Capriccio (Ted Hughes Society Journal Vol 8 Issue 2) Steve Ely discusses both the importance of the engravings by Leonard Baskin, and the relevance of Assia Wevill to the poetry. I found this article fascinating in Ely’s description of the collaboration between Hughe and Baskin. However I found it unsympathetic to Assia, describing her […]
THE WRITING OF CAPRICCIO I have written three completely different versions of this novel, over fifteen years, each of the three entailing many drafts. The first was called simply ‘Assia’, and was based on what I then knew of her life. Most of my information came from scholarly works on Hughes or Plath, plus a study of Hughes’s poetry. A […]
If Assia, named Esther in my novel. ‘Capriccio’, had lived to see this day, she would have reached the grand old age of ninety-three. Instead, in a moment of madness, she took her own life, and that of her daughter with Ted Hughes, at the age of forty-one. A double tragedy, undoubtedly caused by her stormy relationship with Hughes, and […]
www.goodreads.com/review/show/3130338430 I’m humbled and delighted by this review on Goodreads, over a year after publication of ‘Capriccio:A Novel’. So happy readers are still enjoying it.
This poem, re-blogged from whatadriwrites.com/, purported to be written by Assia, expresses succintly the tragic life and death of Assia Gutmann Wevill. Entitled ‘Suicide Sestina’ it begins with a famous couplet by Sylvia Plath, followed by this cry of bitterness and unrequited love from Assia. — Read the poem here: http://www.whatadriwrites.com/?p=9
This is an abridged version of the article by Eilat Negev, which inspired me to write the story of Assia Gutmann Wevill as a work of fiction.
I am excited to announce the forthcoming publication of my work of fiction, ‘Capriccio: a Novel’. To honour the occasion I will be seting up a new website where I will post background information on the real story behind the book. My brand new Website “CAPRICCIOTHE NOVEL” is coming soon! Here you can read articles and see photos of the real story behind “Capriccio: A Novel”, soon to be published by Cilento Press. I took the title of my novel from a series of poems by Ted Hughes, which were written about his relationship with Assia Gutmann Wevill. My book tells the story of their love affair, from the viewpoint of the woman who came between Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Apart from one biography, ‘Lover of Unreason” by Eilat Negev and Yehuda Koren, Assia herself has been written out of history, or else maligned by the brief mentions she gets in many of the reference books about this famous love triangle. My novel aims to redress the balance, and to restore Assia to her proper place in literary history. WATCH THIS SPACE FOR COVER PHOTO, BLURB, AND MORE DETAILS COMNG SOON!
Go to my contact page to get in touch about my writing and the writing process.
dinadavisauthor
Dina Davis Author 