Letters Home: Correspondence, 1950-1963

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When I started this I was not at all sure whether I wanted to read it. I liked The Bell Jar, but it could just have been the time I read it. I do not get her poetry. Cult of the personality stuff makes me uncomfortable. Doesn't she deserve to be laid to rest, anyway. Blah. In these letters to her mother, Sylvia Plath dares to admit her uncertainties, to reflect her personal fears, failures and questions on her mental status. The 2nd and 3rd of May we had a terrific snow blizzard. We should have left the ship to go away and do some work on another ship but we could not get away from our ship it was so rough. We have no night now, the sun goes down but it never goes dark, it is eternally daylight. Reading Henry’s letter to him, Jordan says: “You have been your positive, funny, authentic self throughout the whole time in the house and people love you for you.”

But I found that I did care in the end. This old, brown world of hissing gas fires, strange smells on the stairs, and filial duty worn like some heavy overcoat: how it hypnotises. When I wasn’t crying with laughter – “you can’t expect to enjoy yourself on holiday as you do at home” is among the more Hilda Ogden-ish advice Larkin dispenses to his ma – I was often close to sobbing at the sweet-sadness of it all. Behind the belly-aching and the penny-pinching, the making-do and the clay-cold depression, there is an immensity of kindness here, and the fact that this was sometimes so effortful on Larkin’s part only makes it the more tender (Eva, so anxious she could not sleep in her own house alone, frequently drove her son halfway round the bend). Headteacher’s letter – 31st October (including the daily schedule for all year groups for the coming half-term. Reading Noky’s letter to her, Olivia says: “To my best friend, from the second I was born I have looked up to you in every single way – we were meant to be sisters.” It’s almost 18 months since the inquest into the tragic death of Orlaith Quinn, who took her own life in the Royal Jubilee Maternity Hospital in 2018, two days after she gave birth to her third child while experiencing post-partum psychosis. The coroner said Northern Ireland needs an MBU. But since then more families bereaved by suicide have come to Action on Post-partum Psychosis for support. Big Brother gathers the group and says: “Seeing as you’ve all been such angels while staying in my house, I thought I’d treat you to a little taste of heaven.”I encourage anyone who likes Sylvia Plath and wants to learn and understand more about her, to read Letters Home, for it is probably the most authentic source for the truths and lies that wore for the outside world. I have yet to read her journals.

My Dearest Will, I feel I must write you again dear altho there is not much news to tell you. I wonder how you are getting on. I shall be so relieved to get a letter from you. I can't help feeling a bit anxious dear. I know how you must have felt darling when you did not get my letters for so long. Of course I know dear you will write as soon as ever you can, but the time seems so dull and weary without any news of you, if only this war was over dear and we were together again. It will be one day I suppose. Headteacher’s letter to families 28th May 2021 (attachment Public Health letter to families 27.05.21 How are your hands now dear? Mine are very sore, so chapped, and my left hand has got several chilblains on it and they do irritate. I could scratch it to bits. Have you been receiving the books I have sent you dear. I am very pleased to say dear I am keeping very well indeed, and I trust you are the same. An MBU provides specialist care for both mum and baby. Mental health teams with specialist training are able to provide the best care, for example: prescribing drugs that are suitable for use in the perinatal period; supporting the mother-infant relationship and the development of parenting skills; providing adequate post-partum physical care and appropriate facilities (such as nappy changing, milk fridges, play areas, safe places for older siblings to visit). After offering the opportunity of treats including a delicious sushi buffet and a luxury afternoon tea.I would rather not describe the condition of the crew, of course they were dead - burnt to death. They were roasted, there is absolutely no other word for it. They were brown, like the outside of Roast Beef. One had his legs off at the knees, and you could see the joint! Both Jones and another of his lovers, Maeve Brennan, believed that Eva got in the way of Larkin’s relationship with them, and at one point in these letters, Larkin writes expressly of the fact that he must neglect either Eva or Monica over Christmas, and how impossible this is for him.