Sylvia's Magnetism

The Telegraph prints a series of letters by Ted Hughes. They show him in an extraordinarily unflattering light--and then at the end, a rather lovely little anthology of his comments on various literary types brought me back round in sympathy to him. There's a great details about T. S. Eliot's "huge thick hands - unexpected," and here's another taste:

I was once in the pen-shop, top of Regent St, with Alvarez, and I exclaimed about an extraordinary portly magnificent pen in the display case. Alvarez also exclaimed & laughed – "It looks like Cyril Connolly." I don't know how the remark was intended – no idea what Alvarez felt about C.C. – but the comic idea seemed just right – it endeared both Cyril Connolly & pen to me. So I later got the pen, & I still use it. It was my first meeting with a Mont Blanc