Frieda Hughes on suicide, divorce and the pet magpie that gave her hope

’So, no I don’t want to kill myself. I want to live with love and passion… and owls and the occasional magpie that do go some way to answering great meaning’

Frieda Hughes and her pet magpie (The Independent)

In a moving interview with Independent TV, the poet and painter Frieda Hughes reveals how her adoption of a wild baby magpie became a lifeline as she struggled through the slow break-up of her marriage. She also discusses with Geordie Greig, the paper’s Editor-in-Chief, how she has navigated her life and career while bearing the constant label of being the daughter of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. In George: A Magpie Memoir she recounts a Born Free-like love affair with the wild bird she adopts in Wales, in its own way as challenging and humorous as the adoption of the African lion Elsa in George Adamson’s classic autobiography - as the bird eventually dominates her life, bringing chaos and destruction as well as great love.

In her most revealing TV interview Hughes, the author of eight books of poems and an acclaimed painter, talks about the suicides of her mother and brother. ‘’The death of my mother was preceded by their separation and so I lost my father first and then I lost my mother and then I got my father back. There was a sort of dissonance with everything, the chaos continued and started much earlier on.

“I have been asked at times if I felt like killing myself and the answer has not ever changed. As I am the only one left in my family one has to make as good a fist of it as possible. I have to take every scrap of being and make life as good as I can. My poems and whatever else I create are a contribution to the breadcrumbs of the trail of my life that I am leaving behind for others to follow. So when I see a George or animals like that who survive, I want to help them lead their best life. I want a life lived with passion and verve and energy.

“So, no I don’t want to kill myself. I want to live with love and passion… and owls and the occasional magpie that do go some way to answering great meaning.”

Her search to remedy loss in her life has meant she often turned to wild animals as a comfort and source of finding joy in life. There were owls and ferrets before she fell for George, her magpie. She found him fallen from a nest, virtually starved and on the point of death. She dug worms to feed him and watched him grow into a “at times malevolent but marvellous force of nature“. George was more destructive and cunning than a delinquent child and yet she wept when he eventually left her after two years; she clings to the hope that he survived and bred his own family. Despite disliking the endless references to her being the daughter of the two poets, in the Independent TV interview she explores the impact of Sylvia Plath’s suicide and the impact of her tragic relationship with Ted Hughes.

“My father was very much rooted in the animal world in my brow,” she tells Geordie Greig. “My mother is very much rooted in the human world and the stripping down of the human being. My father always said that I was nothing like either of them. I have had doors slammed in my face because people think ‘you have had it so easy and so we’re not going to help you’.”

Frieda Hughes and her pet owl chicks (The Independent)

That observation by Ted Hughes that she was not like either her mother or her father is testament to Frieda’s own identity as a poet and an artist. It is this individuality that has brought about this moving and inspiring memoir based on her 2007 diaries, which sadly he never lived to read.

In a moving interview with Independent TV, the poet and painter Frieda Hughes reveals how her adoption of a wild baby magpie became a lifeline (The Independent)

If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.

If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.