Ted Hughes was born in Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, an ancient, stony, half-industrialized town. His father, who worked as a carpenter and shopkeeper, was one of only 17 soldiers in his regiment to have survived the battle of Gallipoli during the First World War. From the bleak landscape of his hometown,

Dark, Dramatic, Mythic, Violent

Love and war may be huge themes, but Sebastian Faulks approaches them from a microscopic perspective. He detects love in the minute movements of a woman's fingers; in a man's manner of crawling through trenches, he captures fear and torment. Faulks is involved in a romance with detail, charging every

Epic, Intense, Pathos, Realist fiction, Sensual, Violent