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A new biography on the dark side of a poet

EDINBURGH, Scotland, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- A controversial new biography of British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes shows a dark side of the literary great that few have known, the Scotsman reported.

"A Lover of Unreason: The Life and Tragic Death of Assia Wevill," by Israeli authors Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev, claims Hughes had a tyrannical side which he imposed on Wevill, his German mistress.

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Hughes reportedly wrote pages of instructions on how Wevill should conduct her day, including the exact time she was to get up and how she should manage the house and children.

Wevill is believed to have had an affair with Hughes when he was still married to United States poet Sylvia Plath.

Wevill gassed herself with her 4-year-old daughter Shura in 1969 after discovering that Hughes was cheating on her.

Koren and Negev also revealed that Hughes and Wevill shared a bed in the flat where Plath died, within two days of her suicide in 1963.

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