Helen Bain | A Year in the Life of Plath and Hughes
Sun 22 Nov 2026 | 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Helen Bain’s critically acclaimed debut The Daffodil Days depicts a pivotal year in the marriage of 20th-century literature’s most infamous couple, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. It’s a kaleidoscopic portrait of this enigmatic pair, witnessed by the people they lived amongst in a small Devonshire town, North Tawton. Join Helen, who spent a lot of time in North Tawton as part of her research, for fresh insights into the lives of these influential writers.
In conversation with Erica Wagner.
Venue: Cambridge Union Library
Duration: 1 hour
Tickets available soon.
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Author Biography
Helen Bain works as a sub editor at the Financial Times (formerly at the Guardian, Vogue and Red) and holds two MA degrees from Birkbeck University in creative writing and modern/contemporary literature. She was chosen for The London Library Emerging Writer’s Programme 2020-21 and The Genesis Foundation Emerging Writers’ Programme 2022-23. She lives in Sussex but has spent much time in North Tawton, bell-ringing and beekeeping as part of her research. The Daffodil Days is her first novel.
Chair Biography
Erica Wagner‘s books include Gravity, Seizure, Ariel’s Gift and Chief Engineer, winner of the Eccles Centre and Hay Festival Writer’s Award. She is the editor of First Light, a celebration of the work of Alan Garner. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2023 and in 2025 was awarded a Public Humanities Fellowship by the School of Advanced Study, University of London.
