17. Plath holidayed with Richard Sassoon – and the photos they took on the beach famously show another side to the troubled poet
For a while, Plath tried to keep her relationship with Sassoon going. She was besotted with him. The pair traveled to the south of France for what would be one last vacation together. The photographs of that time, taken on the sun-kissed beach show a completely different side to Plath than the melancholic, suicidal poet she is often remembered as. She’s pictured smiling in a white bikini, frolicking with the man she loved. Once the vacation was over, however, Sassoon broke up with her. Plath would write to her mother saying he was the only man she had ever loved.