genetics?

The son of poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes has committed suicide in the United States, according to reports.

Nicholas Hughes is believed to have hanged himself at his home in Alaska. The 47-year-old was not married and had no children of his own.

The Times in London and the BBC said his sister, Frieda, confirmed his death. Ted Hughes' publisher in London, Faber and Faber, says she has arrived in Alaska.

The death adds another chapter to the family's tragic history. Plath committed suicide in 1963, shortly after her turbulent relationship with Ted Hughes ended. Her son had just turned 1 year old.

Ted Hughes had left her for another woman, and spent years battling feminists who blamed him for her death.

A former neighbour of mine, who ran a bookstore was a big fan of Ted Hughes and used to get into terrible arguements with people who claimed that he (Hughes) had "destroyed a great talent" He disputed that she was a talent at all and claimed that the people who deified Sylvia after her death were simply spouting "plathitudes"