How the Whale became and other stories Ted Hughes Lovereading - -Year 3 (age 7-8) More books from this list Book 7 of 18. View the next book in this list View the next book in this list This title is in stock Price £4.49 RRP £5.99  Saving £1.50 (%25)   Download Extract    Buy This Book

The Lovereading comment:

First published 25 years ago, this book by the Poet Laureate is now regarded as a classic of its kind. It includes 11 stories of what happened to a number of animals, including the owl, whale, polar bear, and the donkey who wanted to be a lion.

About The Author

Ted Hughes was born on 17 August 1930 in Mytholmroyd, a small mill town in West Yorkshire. His father made portable wooden buildings. The family moved to Mexborough, a coal-mining town in South Yorkshire, when Hughes was seven. His parents took over a newsagent and tobacconist shop, and eventually he went to the local grammar school.

In 1948 Hughes won an Open Exhibition to Pembroke College, Cambridge. Before going there, he served two years National Service in the Royal Air Force. Between leaving Cambridge and becoming a teacher, he worked at various jobs, finally as a script-reader for Rank at their Pinewood Studios.

In 1956 Hughes married the American poet Sylvia Plath, who died in 1963, and they had two children. He remarried in 1970. He was awarded the OBE in 1977, created Poet Laureate in December 1984 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1998. He died in October 1998.