Sylvia Plath: Killing the Angel in the House

Much has been written about the tragic life of Sylvia Plath; less about her poetry. 


This popular book is an introduction to the work of perhaps last century's greatest woman poet. 


Elaine Connell also examines some of the continual questions surrounding the writer's work. Was Plath feminine or feminist? How did her relationship with another great poet, Ted Hughes,  influence her work? To what extent does her poetry have its roots in mythology? Do we need to examine the socially oppressive conventionality of 1950s US society to really understand Plath.


Elaine Connell had a degree in English, History and Politics from Manchester Metropolitan University, an MA in English from the University of Salford and a teaching certificate from the University of Manchester. 


She taught for 30 years and worked for the Open University, for the Manchester Metropolitan University and a variety of schools and colleges in West Yorkshire. She was a Senior Examiner for GCSE English.


Her fascination with the life and work of Sylvia Plath goes back over most of her adult life and was the subject of her MA thesis. 


Elaine Connell started writing in the mid-eighties. Her first published work was in the Eight to Late (Overdue Books) anthology of women’s writing. In 1987, she was awarded a Yorkshire Arts bursary for new writers.


She contributed to News on Sunday, the Guardian and the Yorkshire Post. In 1991, Cycling in Search of the Cathars, (Pennine Pens) a travel history book on southwest France, which she wrote with Chris Ratcliffe, was published.


In 2004, Elaine was featured in a a prime time BBC 2 programme about Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, interviewed by poet Ian Macmillan.


Until her death in 2007, Elaine Connell managed a highly regarded forum on the Internet for those with an interest in Sylvia Plath - The Sylvia Plath Forum