The Daffodil Days

Helen Bain's The Daffodil Days is a biofiction novel that revisits the roughly 14 months Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes spent in North Tawton, Devon, in 1962; Bain foregrounds meticulous archival research and interviews to tell the story through the viewpoints of local residents.

The book uses multiple local perspectives to invert the usual narrative focus on Plath herself, offering a community's gaze rather than a single biographical account.

Bain structures the novel in reverse chronology, moving backward through the months to avoid fixating on Plath's death and to end on a note of optimism.

The narrative draws on newly available audio interviews, letters, and town records to give texture to everyday interactions—shopkeepers, the GP, and household staff feature as narrators.

Combining factual research with imaginative reconstruction, the novel explores themes of belonging, creativity, and how communities perceive outsiders while remaining a work of fiction rather than a biography.