Would you like a cat or a hot water bottle?

(I prefer a Sac magique, but be that as it may....)

Sylvia Plath on first staying in an English home:

"And I remember particularly when going to bed at night, she very seriously offered me the choice of a hot water bottle or a cat. She didn't have enough hot water bottles to go round or enough cats to go around, but if she used both of them they came out even. And I chose the cat."

The BBC has recently released an audio recording of Plath and Hughes talking about meeting, courting, marrying and, of course, writing.