November 2005

Nomination: Faith Healing [10 May 1960. From The Whitsun Weddings]

“Moustached in flowered frocks they shake” is surely a line which perfectly describes feminine limitations. This image of “shaking” “flowered frocks” whose femininity is mocked by their “moustache” demonstrates Larkin’s humourous observation perfectly. Most women, even when not “moustached”, cannot help but sympathise with that “immense slackening ache” experienced when a need is not recognised or the answer cannot be found to that relentless question.

Beth Fletcher