signed by the poet

Ted Hughes' poems 'have a dark energy and the rhythms and sounds of Old English, often to do with the natural world, with animals and the landscape and with myths and legends. Hughes's imagination was a rich, driving force for his work, allowing him to tap into the power of dreams and of magic, as well as using his brilliant skill at observing creatures to help catch their movements and nature on the page'. The Children's Poetry Archive.

First editions thus, signed by the Hughes on the half-title of vol. I; 4 vols, 8vo (205 x 135 mm each); illustrated by Christ Riddell and Lisa Flather; publisher's dark grey boards, spines lettered in white; illustrated white dust-jackets, housed in the original illustrated and printed cardboard slip-case, a fine, bright set with only a hint of age-toning to slip-case.