October 2012 Nomination: Money [19 February 1973. From High Windows] “Money makes the world go round”, so they say. It seems to me that whenever I turn the radio on ‘its’ usually talks about [...]

September 2012 Nomination: Aubade [29 November 1977. First published in The Times Literary Supplement 23 December 1977 I was terrified of death from a very young age. My parents used to put me to [...]

August 2012 Nomination: The Whitsun Weddings [18 October 1958. From The Whitsun Weddings] There are so many Larkin poems I could nominate but ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ is very special to me. It [...]

July 2012 Nomination: Wires [4 November 1950. From The Less Deceived] I think this was the very first poem I ever read by Larkin. It was published in The Spectator in the issue of 2 October 1953. [...]

June 2012 Nomination: And now the leaves suddenly lose strength [3 November 1961. From Collected Poems (1988)] This is an uncollected poem written in 1961. It is a changing of the seasons poems [...]

May 2012 Nomination: At Grass [3 January 1950. From The Less Deceived (1955)] This poem reminds me forcibly of Philip’s strong attachment to the RSPCA and his utter loathing of cruelty to [...]

April 2012 Nomination: Afternoons [September 1959. From The Whitsun Weddings] This poem was written when Philip Larkin lived in his top flat in Pearson Park in Hull. He loved living in a high [...]

March 2012 Nomination: The Building [9 February 1972. From High Windows] Having suffered a minor stroke at the beginning of the month, I spent the first two weeks of December 2011 in Hull Royal [...]

February 2012 Nomination: Ambulances [10 January 1961. From The Less Deceived] Rather like ‘Aubade’, this poem is a portrait of Larkin’s fear and contemplation of death. Yet it manages to [...]

January 2012 Nomination: I Remember, I Remember [8 January 1954. From The Less Deceived] Although Philip Larkin and I come from different worlds and diffferent decades, we share one close [...]

December 2011 Nomination: Winter Nocturne [December 1938. From Collected Poems (1988)] My choice reflects the month of shorter days, Philip Larkin’s first published poem, now 73 years old in its [...]

November 2011 Nomination: Street Lamps [September 1939. From Collected Poems (1988)] With so many superb mature works available, why have I chosen a poem written when Larkin was a sixth-former? [...]

October 2011 Nomination: The Trees [2 June 1967. From High Windows] ‘The Trees’ is a poem that I have always enjoyed because it immediately resonates with one of the great pleasures derived from [...]

September 2011 Nomination: Breadfruit [19 November 1961. From Collected Poems (1988)] This is a poem that proclaims itself Larkin’s in many ways: by theme, by style and most delightfully by its [...]

July 2011 Nomination: Days [3 August 1953. From The Whitsun Weddings] As Director of the Philip Larkin Centre I am always pleased to discover new writing that spins out from an appreciation of a [...]

June 2011 Nomination: Love [7 December 1962. From Collected Poems 1988] In 1981 my father died very suddenly and my mother came to stay with me for a few days later in the year. Whist she was in [...]

May 2011 Nomination: An Arundel Tomb [20 February 1956. From The Whitsun Weddings] This month marks the 5th anniversary of my father – David Rees’ death. Dad was for a time webmaster of the [...]

April 2011 Nomination: Toads Revisited [October 1962. From The Whitsun Weddings] ‘Toads Revisited’ is a favourite of mine from the seminal The Whitsun Weddings collection. On reading it again, [...]

March 2011 Nomination: The Mower [12 June 1979. From Collected Poems 1988] p>I would like to nominate ‘The Mower’, partly because I have an unaccountable interest in old mowers, partly because [...]

February 2011 Nomination: A Study of Reading Habits [20 August 1960. From The Whitsun Weddings] I was fifteen when I found ‘A Study of Reading Habits’ in an untravelled corner of a poetry [...]