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late poet show his grief after his partner’s suicide, just six years after his first wife Sylvia Plath’s. A series of unpublished poems written by Ted Hughes immediately after the tragic deaths of Assia Gutmann Wevill and their daughter Alexandra Tatiana Elise, known as Shura, might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 […]
Part of a continuing series on the biographical novel and the way it contributes to our understanding of biographical subjects—this time with Dina Davis who does justice to Assia Wevill — Read on anchor.fm/carl-rollyson/episodes/Sylvia-Plath–Ted-Hughes–and-most-of-all-Assia-Wevill-in-a-new-light-in-Capriccio-e19i1c7
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 […]
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
Some reviews of my first edition of Capriccio: A Novel: eBook: Dina Davis: Amazon.com.au: Books — Read on www.amazon.com.au/Capriccio-Novel-Dina-Davis-ebook/dp/B07GGFXX9G/ref=sr_1_2_twi_kin_1
AUTHOR TALK: Dina Davis with Susannah Fullerton. Review by Susan Beinart On 3 February 2019, Waverley Library Theatrette resounded with the voices of Dina Davis in conversation with Susannah Fullerton, at the Sydney launch of Dina’s début work, Capriccio: A Novel. This novel was inspired by the lives of Assia Wevill, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. This roman à clef covers the love-triangle that played out between these three poets, highlighting, for the first time, Wevill’s role in this fascinating tale. Fullerton, well known at Library events for her deep knowledge of Jane Austen and other historical writers, asked Davis probing questions about Capriccio: A Novel. Davis answered Fullerton’s questions with passion and honesty. The conversation flowed and the audience was riveted. We learned much about Capriccio: A Novel, including that Davis wrote it with commitment, partly because she felt passionate about the single-mother plight of Wevill, who had, apart from a biography, thus far escaped literary interest. No longer. This fine novel will surely provoke more interest in Wevill, who is known as ‘Esther’ in the book. Names of all the protagonists were changed at the request of the Hughes Estate. PAGE 2 Adapted from Friends of the Waverley Library Newsletter, SPRING 2019
The Joys and Perils of the Writing Life So here I am, as Abraham said to the Lord when offering up his son for sacrifice. “Here I Am” is the title of a wonderful new book by Jonathan Safran Foer, a monumental work close to 1000 pages, exploring themes of cultural identity, fidelity and betrayal, the ephemeral nature of love, families functional and dysfunctional, and what makes them so. As for me myself and I, this post is in the nature of an apology to you, my readers, for my untoward absence. SInce I last posted back in April, life has overtaken me. There’s been illness, convalescence, slow recovery, as well as the joys of grandchildrens’ birthdays. and celebrations of their achievements, some sojourns in beautiful Darwin, home of my daughters and grandsons, and the minutiae of everyday life. On the writing side, I’ve been hard at work on my new novel, ‘A Difficult Daughter’, and preparing my first novel. ‘Capriccio’, for publication. This entailed a major rewrite, mostly in appeasement to Faber and Faber, publishers of the works of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, and the Hughes Estate. Like Jonathan Bate, I fell foul of the Estate when requesting permission to quote thirteen lines of Hughes’s poetry, fully expecting dispensation for such a small amount of material. The lines I quoted were used to introduce chapters, each of which was given the title of one of the ‘Capriccio’ poems […]
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Dina Davis Author 