Ted Hughes poem discovered
08.06.09 Catherine Neilan writing in The Bookseller

A children's poem written by Ted Hughes in the mid-1950s and subsequently lost for decades is being published this autumn by Thames & Hudson.
Entitled Timmy the Tug, the poem was inspired by Hughes' former flat-mate Jim Downer, who had written and illustrated his own version to impress his future wife, and convince her that "he would not only be a suitable husband, but a good father too".
After reading the poem, Hughes told Downer he would create his own version, and took the original to add his verses. The book was discovered last year by Hughes' second wife Carol ( and returned to Downer.

Thames & Hudson is producing "an exact facsimile", as a hardback priced £12.95, which will be released on 21st September. This is the first time the publisher has produced a children's poem.
T&H m.d Jamie Camplin, who acquired the book, said: "What a project—the unpublished lost work of one of the best known poets of all time; the fresh and brilliantly coloured art-work of a virtuoso illustrator and an exuberant story with a kind of ending everyone loves—happy."