Sadly, the current pandemic has robbed us of the chance to get together in person this year for our customary December commemoration. However, we are delighted to be able to announce an exciting virtual alternative for the afternoon of Saturday 5th December commencing at 3.00 PM GMT.

John Osborne, a co-founder of The Philip Larkin Society, has written, lectured and broadcast extensively on Larkin, and will be chairing an online Zoom session involving three of the UK’s most exciting and highly acclaimed new poets all of whom have a strong connection with Hull. In addition to reading their work, the contributors, Rachael Allen, Mary McCollum and Rachel Long, will consider the extent to which Larkin and his contemporaries have relevance for the future development of their writing.

Click here for full details
We hope as many of you as possible will be able to join us for what will be an experimental ‘first’ for the Society and, hopefully, one which will attract a truly global audience. Register for the event via the link below, after which you will receive an email invitation to join the Zoom meeting.

Book your place here

‘Now you’ll be wondering what I thought of The Secret Garden,’ ^Philip Larkin wrote to Monica Jones on 24th June 1953,’ Well I thought it astonishingly good. I can’t imagine how I’ve never come across it before {…] If it has any message, it’s surely that – well, I can’t put it into in a sentence, but it’s that life is strong and joyful enough to push up & overturn the strongest and heaviest morbid fancies and fears: it calls on everyone to put aside distrusts and shrinking-back, and live to the utmost while life is for the having.’ Letters to Monica p. 98

That this classic children’s story by Frances Hodgson Burnett should evoke in Larkin such a profound sense of exultant joy is surely enough to evoke further curiosity as to why this particular book should have had such an effect on him (in a later letter to Monica he links it to Lady Chatterley).

Ann Thwaite, wife of Anthony Thwaite, the Society’s President, and friend of Larkin’s, first wrote her biography of Frances Hodgson Burnett in 1974. This has now been rereleased in paperback ahead of a new film, starring Colin Firth and Julie Walters and directed by Marc Munden due to released in the UK in October 2020. As Ann says, ‘The film will look afresh at the book itself and Burnett’s extraordinary life.’Ann has also been commissioned to write an article in The New Statesman which will delve further into Larkin’s love of this book. Definitely not to be missed!

For a chance to win vintage copies of books written by Frances Hodgson Burnett from Ann’s extensive collection, members might like to try out her quiz.

Ann has also produced a list of discussion questions for bookclubs.

Beyond The Secret Garden is published by Duckworth

PLS continues to move on apace. We are proud to have celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Society with a very special commemorative edition of ‘About Larkin’ which beautifully captures the highlights and events of the past quarter century during which there have been so many. The edition, which is free to members and available to download by non-members for a cost of £12 is dedicated to Professor Eddie Dawes in recognition of his 25 year tenure as chairman of the society.

Membership of the Society is rising, which is extremely exciting news and bodes well as we begin to prepare for what we hope will be a major celebration of Philip Larkin’s centenary in 2022 under the banner of ‘Larkin100’.

At the recent AGM, held virtually via email, several new appointments to the trustees and changes to the officer posts were approved. Following the retirement of Eddie Dawes, Graham Chesters has been appointed as the Society’s Chair. Lyn Lockwood, who is also responsible for the PLS podcasts, takes over as Deputy Chair. In addition, we are pleased to welcome Rachel Welch as the Society’s new General Secretary and Julian Henry and Julian Wild as two further trustees. Kyra Piperides Jaques takes over as Editor of ‘About Larkin’ and we are very pleased to retain Professor James Booth’s services as the Society’s Literary Adviser.

The latest edition of our podcast, ‘Tiny in all That Air’ features the writer and broadcaster, David Quantick. A few months ago, David tweeted about his enjoyment of Trouble At Willow Gables and other Brunette Coleman works by Philip Larkin. In this episode he joins us to talk about Brunette Coleman and in particular her essay What Are We Writing For? (1943), poem Femmes Damnes and the wider ‘schoolgirl’ writing of Philip Larkin.  The episode is receiving rave reviews and is a really excellent listen.

The Lockdown Larkin Quiz- as the ‘poet laureate of social isolation’, who better to turn to at this time than Philip Larkin? But how well do you know your Larkin? Do you know your Monicas from your Ruths? Do you know your Brynmor Jones from your Wellingtons? Are you a toad or a sea anemone?

You can play for fun and keep your answers to yourself, or you can fill in the sheet and email it to us at plseducation@philiplarkin.com.

If you’d like exclusive early access just sign up to the newsletter on our home page (if you haven’t done so already).

What a splendid way to pass the time this weekend!

In these days of extreme, house bound, social isolation Larkin aficionados will be pleased to know that a wealth of Larkin-related material is available online to help pass the time and keep the spirits up.

Here is a, by no means definitive, range of sources…. Enjoy!
YouTube

YouTube is, of course, packed with material relating to Philip Larkin, including poetry, read by him and lots of others, and discussions. Most of the Larkin documentaries can be easily found too, including the 1962 BBC Monitor programme, ‘Down Cemetery Road’ featuring Larkin in conversation with John Betjeman: ‘Love and Death in Hull’, which has an extended interview with Ruth Siverns, Larkin’s twice time fiancee, and the 1982 South Bank Show, in which Larkin famously refused to appear in a face to face interview but allowed himself to be filmed from over his shoulder while turning the pages of one of his poetry workbooks. ‘Through The Lens of Larkin’ and Return to Larkinland’ are other joys.

In terms of poetry reading, highlights include Dave Lee’s brlliant films featuring Sir Tom Courteney:

‘Here’

‘This Be The Verse’

Larkin and his mother were great fans of ‘The Archers’ so this reading of ‘Church Going’ by Tim Bentinck who plays David Archer, is an absolute gem.

Larkin25

The 2010 ‘Larkin 25’ Festival marked the 25th anniversary of Larkin’s death and generated a whole range of work inspired by Larkin’s own creativity in the areas of poetry, drama, film, dance, visual arts, song, photography, public sculpture and art. You can get a flavour of it by viewing the archived web pages.

Following on from ‘Larkin25’, ’Sounding The Larkin Trail’ formed part of the ’Toads Revisited’ Festival in Hull in 2015 and involved a musical trail from Spring Bank Cemetery to Paragon Station ending up in Ye Olde Black Boy. It was put together by Dave Gawthorpe, a Hull musician, and part of the Hillbilly Troupe.

BBC Sounds

There is a wealth of Larkin related material available via the BBC Sounds App. The following are highly recommended:

I Was Larkin’s Magician

Featuring our Chair, Eddie Dawes, founder of Hull University’s biochemistry department and a world renowned magician who performed tricks for his friend Philip Larkin.

Alan Bennett on his love of Philip Larkin

Featured in Radio ‘s ‘Today’ programme on National Poetry Day 2014

Free Thinking – Sound Frontiers: Books of 1946

This programme explores some of the key books published in 1946, including Back, by Henry Green, Jill by Philip Larkin and The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin, the pseudonym of Larkin’s great friend, Bruce Montgomery.

Prom Plus Literary – Philip Larkin

Recorded during the BBC Proms season in 2014, Andrew Motion and Kate Clanchy discuss Larkin’s writing, and the 50th anniversary of the publication of ‘The Whitsun Weddings’.

The New Elizabethans In a series of programmes marking the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, James Naughtie examined the lives and impact of the men and women who had given the second Elizabethan age its character. This episode focuses on Larkin.

Two fascinating programmes feature the poet Sean O’Brien. The first ‘I, By the Tide of Humber’ was recorded in the run up to Hull’s year as City of Culture in 2017 and reflects on the way in which the city’s water and landscapes have inspired poets like himself and Larkin. The second programme, ‘The Essay’ recorded during the BBC’s ‘Contains Strong Language’ Festival in Hull in 2018, features a comparison of the work of Larkin and Ted Hughes.

An episode of Alistair Cooke’s ‘Letters To America’ from 2003 has the presenter reflecting on Larkins life and, in particular, his attitude towards children.

The ‘Desert Island Discs’ archive is also well worth visiting, not only for Larkin’s own appearance in July 1976 but also that of his first biographer, Andrew Motion, in which he discusses his friendship with Larkin and includes Larkin reading ‘Here’ as one of his record choices. . Larkin’s great friend, Barbara Pym, appeared in July 1978 and  recalls how Larkin championed her when her books went out of fashion, leading to her being shortlised for the Booker Prize. Kingsley Amis appeared twice (which would not have pleased Larkin!) – initially in May 1961 (episode not available) and again in November 1986. He discusses meeting Larkin for the first time at Oxford, their shared love of jazz and the influence Larkin had on ‘Lucky Jim’ (though, typically, he doesn’t give his friend proper credit for this).

SoundCloud

SoundCloud also contains a vast repository of Larkinalia, including two recordings of the Larkin Society’s Guest Lectures:

Archie Burnett 2013 ‘Biography and Poetry: Philip Larkin’

Blake Morrison 2018 ‘Larkin and Freedom’

There is also a fascinating recording made of Larkin’s opening of the new Library at Leicester University in 1975 which reveals something of Larkins wonderfully self-deprecating humour:

‘Any librarian is bound to welcome a new library, and, if he should also be a spare time writer, he’s apt to feel like a director of Ladbookes on contemplating a new racecourse…’

Podcasts

Apart from our brilliant ‘Tiny in all that Air’ podcasts, there are several others featuring Larkin

Shedunnit

Caroline Crampton’s excellent podcast covering the mysteries of detective stories includes an episode featuring Larkin’s favourite crime writer, Gladys Mitchell (the title of this episode, ‘The Great Gladys’ was Larkin’s nickname for Mitchell). In the second section of the podcast, Crampton discusses Larkin’s high regard for Mitchell’s work and for crime fiction in general.

Backlisted

A literary podcast ‘giving life to old books’. Episode 74, recorded at the 2018 Port Eliot Festival focuses on a discussion of A Girl in Winter

Freedom, Books, Flowers & the Mood – the TLS podcast

The March 8 2018 edition  ‘Writers and their mothers’ centres on a conversation with Dale Salwak about his anthology, ‘Writers and Their Mothers’  which includes discussion of Philip Pullen’s essay ‘No Villainous Mother – The Life of Eva Larkin’.