Tiny In All That Air (The Philip Larkin Society)

This episode is all about the 2 PLS conference events that took place on 13-15th March 2024 at the University of Hull. 

Professor Douglas Bell, now back home in the city of Ningbo in China, reflects on visiting Hull City centre and Cottingham for the first time in over 30 years, having graduated from the University of Hull in 1991. Rachael Galletly, PLS Trustee and merchandise officer talks about speakers David Quantick, Blake Morrison, our actors Daniel Wain and Lynne Harrison, and the contribution made by our wonderful artist D J Roberts. Helen Cooper reflects on her research into larkin, Lucian Freud and cancel culture, as well as the allure of Larkin bookends and  Lucy Keating gives us her view of Larkin as someone who has also worked for many years in academic libraries as well as being a fan of classic English pop. We end with Professor Graham Chesters, our chair, and his thoughts about not just the main conference but also the schools and colleges post-16 education day that we also held that week, with an amazing story about a very special pair of  letters, one written to Larkin and one written by Larkin in response.

Professor Douglas Bell is Professor of Education at the School of Education & English, The University of Nottingham, Ningbo China

Bell, D.E. (2024) ‘One of those old-type natural fouled up guys’: A Comparative Investigation of Larkin’s poetic persona and voice in ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ and ‘High Windows’. 

A recording can be accessed at: Professor Douglas Bell - 'One of those old-type natural fouled up guys.' - YouTube

Rachael Galletly has been a trustee of the Philip Larkin Society since 2015 and works for a national educational charity.

Helen Cooper was one of the first thirty girls to join King Henry VIII School in Coventry in 1975. It was when she returned to the School as the Librarian in 2014 that she began to develop her interest in Philip Larkin. The first Larkin event she organised at the School was a Symposium to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his death in 2015 and her last, shortly before she left the School and moved to live in London, was the PLS AGM during Larkin’s centenary in 2022. 

Lucy Keating is originally from Birmingham, where she first encountered Philip Larkin's poetry at school in the 1980s. She spent her career working mainly in academic libraries and related projects, and now lives in Newcastle upon Tyne. 

Professor Graham Chesters is the chair of the PLS and taught at the University of Hull from 1972 to 2007. 

Our next event is the society AGM which takes place in Oxford on Saturday June 8th 2024, 11.30am at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The event is free to all members.

The PLS events group is planning lots more for later in the year so if you want to keep informed then please sign up to the mailing list at our website or, of course, become a member.

Music: Knockin A Jug, On the Sunny Side of the Street from Larkin’s Jazz Disc 1 (I Remember, I Remember), Petit Fleur (Sidney Bechet) played by Monty Sunshine

Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg

Please email Lyn at ⁠lynlockwood70@yahoo.co.uk⁠ with any questions or comments

PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com 

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: ⁠https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

In this episode, Joe James from the Right In The Schoolies podcast and PLS Trustee Alex Howard talk to Lyn about their definitions of horror and where they see horror in Larkin's writing.

Larkin poems/novels discussed- High Windows, Sunny Prestatyn, The Old Fools, At Grass, Aubade, Mr Bleaney, Ambulances, The Building, If, My Darling, Jill, Love Again.

Other writers and references: Paradise Lost by John Milton (1667), the work of Stephen King, the Metaphysical Poets, Oscar Wilde, 'the Seven ages of man' speech from As You Like It (1599), MR James, Wuthering Heights (1847) By Emily Bronte, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson, Hannibal Lector (Red Dragon by Thomas Harris 1981), Steve Coogan's The Reckoning (in production), The Theatre of the Absurd, Bertolt Brecht, Cannibal Holocaust ( dir.Rugero Deodato,1980), Basil (1852) by Wilkie Collins, Alice in Wonderland (1865) By Lewis Carroll,

Exclusive setting of If, My Darling by Wes Finch, featuring Jools Street and John Parker. Editorial assistance from Ben Haines.

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Audio editing by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

This talk was given to the PLS in 2001 by Winifred Dawson. Winifred was born in London, but educated in Belfast which is where she met Larkin when they were both working at Queen’s University Library. Win also went on to write herself and published a biography of Amy Audrey Locke, a muse for the poet WB Yeats. Win opens with a reflection on Larkin’s love for his parents, However, the talk is mainly about Larkin’s relationship with the women in his life: Ruth Bowman, Winifred, Monica Jones, Patsy Strang, Maeve Brennan (who is listening in the audience) and Betty Mackereth. Ruth, Maeve and Win went on to form a friendship, having first met at Ruth's house in 1993, 8 years after Larkin died. Maeve Brennan can be heard very briefly at the end of the talk.

The talk is full of humour, and a frank account of her feelings about Larkin, as well as readings of Larkin’s poetry and letters. The poetry readings were not recorded at the time of the talk, and so are instead read by members of the current Philip Larkin Society committee. We have also added the 1975 poem ‘When first we faced’ after Toads Revisited as a second poem about Betty Mackereth. Books and writers mentioned:

Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life by Andrew Motion(1993)

Philip Larkin Selected Letters ed. Anthony Thwaite (1993)

Playing the Harlot- Patsy Avis (published by Virago in 1996)

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (1954)

Peter Ackroyd, Katherine Mansfield, Flann O’Brien’s At Swim-Two- Birds (1939),  The Real Charlotte by Somerville and Ross (1894), John Betjeman, Scenes from Provincial Life by William Cooper (1950) , DH Lawrence,

The Porter’s Daughter: The Life of Amy Audrey Locke by Winifred Dawson (Sarsen Press, 2014)

Larkin’s review of The Girls by Henry de Montherlant (1959) can be found in Required Writing (1983)

Poems mentioned- poems which are read in the episode are in bold:

Days, Faith Healing, An April Sunday Brings the Snow , Reference Back, Mother, Summer, I Wild Oats, No Road, Within the dream you said, Show Saturday, Talking in Bed, Poem About Oxford,  Latest Face,  Lines on a Young Lady’s Photograph Album, At thirty-one, when some are rich He hears his beloved, Long roots, Maiden Name, Broadcast, Morning at last,  Toads Revisited, When First We Faced, To My Wife, Counting,  An Arundel Tomb

References:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/28/winifred-dawson Ann Thwaite’s obituary of Win Dawson

https://philiplarkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/About-Larkin-01.pdf First issue of About Larkin 

Further reading:

Philip Larkin, Life, Art and Love by James Booth (Bloomsbury, 2014)

Thank you to Jim Orwin for the original  recording and sleeve notes. Thank you to Graham Chesters, Simon Smith, Daniel Vince, Phil Pullen, Clarissa Hard, Rachael Galletly, Alex Davis, Gavin Hogg and Julian wild for reading the poems.

Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg

PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com 

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Professor Zachary Leader is Professor of English Literature at the University of Roehampton. He grew up in California but has lived in Britain for over forty years. He was educated at Northwestern University, Trinity College, Cambridge and Harvard and is the author of several books including Reading Blake's Songs, Writer's Block, Revision and Romantic Authorship.

In 2000 Harper Collins published his edited Letters of Kingsley Amis followed by a highly regarded biography of Amis before he turned his attention to Saul Bellow, with the second part of acclaimed two-volume biography published in 2019.  He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.  Professor Leader’s work on Amis is filled with insights into the lifelong friendship between Kingsley Amis and Philip Larkin and this is what we’ll be discussing today.

References:

Kingsley Amis novels; Lucky Jim (1954), Take a Girl Like You (1960), The Anti-Death League (1966), The Alteration (1976), The Old Devils (1986)

Larkin poems: Church Going ( published 1954), Posterity (published 1976)

Kingsley Amis poem: Drinking Song (published in The New Statesman in 1978)

The Letters of Kingsley Amis, edited by Z. Leader, London: HarperCollins, 2000; New York: Talk/Miramax, 1208pp. (2001)

The Life of Kingsley Amis, Hardcover, New York: Random House, 1008 pp. (2006)


Presented by Lyn Lockwood and Julian Henry. 

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz 

Audio production by Simon Galloway. 

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air 

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/ 

This episode features a writer who would be familiar not only to Hull residents but also to keen telly watchers, radio listeners and theatre goers across the country. Alan Plater was born in Jarrow in 1935  but having moved to Hull when he was just three years old, the city was pleased to adopt him and he lived there for much of his life. His most famous writing credit was probably Z Cars. Alan Plater was also a huge fan of jazz music and his ITV comedy drama The Beiderbecke Affair staring James Bolam and Barbara Flynn in the mid 1980s was a massive success. He went on to win countless awards and accolades for his wonderful writing.

Alan Plater was enormously generous with his time, and made a huge contribution to the Hull arts scene of the 1960s and 70s, developing a gentle friendship with Philip Larkin along the way. This speech was recorded on 28th November 1998,  and was given at that year’s PLS AGM.

Thank you so much to Alexandra Cann who is the agent for the Alan Plater Literary Estate Ltd for giving us the initial approval to use this recording, and to Steve Plater and John Rubinstein who are the joint Directors of the Lit Estate.

If you are interested in seeing an Alan Plater play this summer, then the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough is putting on a production of the Blonde Bombshells of 1943 which is full of swing and jazz, from 2-26th August 2023.

https://sjt.uk.com/events/blonde-bombshells-of-1943

References:

Alfred Bradley https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/about/successes/alfred-bradley-award/

·         The Occasional Smell of Fish (poem)

·         Waiting for Gladys (Becket parody)

·         Bete Noire (Hull poetry journal)

·         Z Cars One Day In Spring Street

·         Jazz Notes- BBC radio programme

·         On Sunday January 4th I had Mild Constipation

·         Names (poem written for Three Trawlers fundraising) ‘my only grown up poem’

·         Swallows on the Water (play)

·         The Fosdyke Saga sonnet ( BBC radio tripe themed -parody of The Forsyth Saga,)- sent a copy to Larkin who responded with a signed copy of the High Windows calling him ‘sonnetteer extraordinaire’

·         Sweet Sorrow (1990) Plater’s play about Larkin

Matthew Arnold, Ogden Nash, Dylan Thomas, Alan Bleasdale, Ted Hughes, Barry Hines, Vera Wise, Henry Livings, Alex Glasgow, Carla Lane, Adrian Mitchell, Allan Ginsburg, Carole Mills (rude songs and low down blues), Robin Kay (flamenco guitarist), Max Boylett (jazz pianist), Ian Clarke and Chris Rowe, Sid and Norm (artists without category), Joe Orton, The Beatles, John Ford (director of westerns), Roger McGough, Jimmy James (music hall performer),Ken Wagstaff- (footballing hero), Fleur Adcock, Jeff Nuttall (had a pee in a bucket on stage), Roni Scott, Suzi Quatro, Mike Bradwell (theatre director), Jess Stacy (jazz pianist), Shakespeare, Max Wall, Peter Brooke (director),  and many more Hull poets listed by Plater.

Pubs mentioned – (in Leeds and Hull) The Bluebell, The Bull, The Fenton, the Hayworth Arms,

Philip Larkin judging poetry competition for the Hull Arts Centre at Spring Street in 1970 which eventually became Hull Truck Theatre.

The loss of the three Hull trawlers in winter of 1967, 59 trawlerman died- the poets organised a reading and Plater wrote ‘Names’.

Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg

PLS Membership and information: The Philip Larkin Society – Philip Larkin

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Chris Walsh is a novelist who now lives in Kent, and who, in common with Larkin, is also a poet and photographer. In this episode, Chris talks about his sense of place, his love of the Goons and how his novel 'The Dig Street Festival' (to be published later in 2020 by Louise Walters), is influenced by Philip Larkin. Chris reads and discussed Larkin's 'Home is So Sad', and we also talk about This Be The Verse, Next Please and more. Follow Chris on Twitter @WalshWrites and visit louisewaltersbooks.co.uk for more information. 

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.  
Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band.  
Audio production by Simon Galloway. 

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air
Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/ 

This episode’s guests are Gavin Hogg and Bruce Lindsay and we are discussing Ivor Cutler, poet, writer, teacher and musician, who was born Jan 15th 1923 and so is a close chronological contemporary of Philip Larkin, although their paths never crossed. We look at their surreal sense of humour, their different experiences of World War II, their approach to poetry, letter writing, jazz, public performance and the cultural landscape of Britain in the twentieth century.

Bruce Lindsay, Ivor Cutler: Life Outside the Sitting Room (Equinox, 2023)

https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/ivor-cutler/

Gavin Hogg and Hamish Ironside, We Peaked At Paper An Oral History of Fanzines (Boatwhistle Press, 2022)

https://www.boatwhistle.com/we-peaked-at-paper

Ivor Cutler poems referenced:

A Flat Man; Is that your Flap, Jack?; Creamy Pumpkins; Cycling; Giant: I Believe in Bugs; Mud; Pass the Ball, Jim ; Pickle Your Knees, Sleepy Old Snake; Life in A Scotch Sitting Room Vol 2

John Peel Sessions: https://peel.fandom.com/wiki/Ivor_Cutler

Philip Larkin poems referenced:

Bridge for the Living, Aubade, Essential Beauty, Mr Bleaney, Church Going

The Sunday Sessions (Faber and Faber, 1980)

The Selected Letters of Philip Larkin ed. Anthony Thwaite (Faber, 1993)

Letters to Monica by Philip Larkin ed. Anthony Thwaite (Faber, 2011)

Read more about Brunette Coleman in Trouble at Willow Gables and Other Fictions ed. James Booth (Faber and Faber, 2002)

Other cultural references

Centipede (band), John Peel, The Fall, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Albert Ammonds, Miles Davis, Robert Wyatt, Spike Milligan, The Goons, John Betjeman, John Cooper Clark, Van Morrison, Linton Kwesi Johnson Forces of Victory (1979), Harold Pinter, Charlie Parker, Neil Ardley, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Sidney Bechet.

Interludes – Thelonious Monk (Round Midnight and Thelonius)

Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg

PLS Membership and information: The Philip Larkin Society – Philip Larkin

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

'Once I am sure there's nothing going on I step inside, letting the door thud shut...'

Joe Riley, teacher and poet of no great renown, is a lifelong lover of Larkin. In this series he attempts to read some of Larkin’s poems in suitable places with his trusty tape recorder. In this episode he explores Church Going from High Windows.

Music: Feeling Drowsy by Henry Allen Jr and His Orchestra Produced by Lyn Lockwood, Gavin Hogg and Joe Riley

Please email Lyn at ⁠lynlockwood70@yahoo.co.uk⁠ with any questions, comments or suggestions for more readings for the podcast.

PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com 

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page:⁠ ⁠https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Our guest today is Kate Romano. Kate is the CEO of arts centre Stapleford Granary which recently dedicated a whole weekend to celebrating many different aspects of Philip Larkin’s life, photography, jazz and poetry. Gavin and I were lucky enough to be able to head down there and enjoy the events as well as running a PLS stall in the middle of it all, talking about all things Larkin to the good people of Cambridgeshire.  Kate joined me to reflect back on the weekend and what she learned about Larkin in the process as well as to look at Broadcast, The Mower, Church Going and Lines on a Young Lady’s photograph album in particular. 

https://www.staplefordgranary.org.uk/whats-on/events

Michael Symmons Roberts https://symmonsroberts.com/

Wendy Cope https://www.faber.co.uk/author/wendy-cope/

John Betjeman- Death In Leamington

 Life, Art and Love by James Booth (Bloomsbury, 2014)

The Importance of Elsewhere by Richard Bradford, with an introduction by Mark Howarth-Booth ( Frances Lincoln, 2015)

The Sunday Sessions https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571244058-the-sunday-sessions/

Monica Jones, Philip Larkin and Me: Her Life and Long Loves by John Sutherland (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2021)

Larkin poems discussed:

Lines on A Young Lady’s Photograph Album, Church Going, Broadcast, The Mower

Music: 

Nobody’s Sweetheart; Mckenzie and Condon’s Chicagoans

One Hour: Mound City Blues Blowers

Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg

Please email Lyn at ⁠plsdeputychair@gmail.com ⁠ with any questions or comments

PLS Membership, events, merchandise and information: philiplarkin.com

The mower stalled, twice...

Joe Riley, teacher and poet of no great renown, is a lifelong lover of Larkin. In this series he attempts to read some of Larkin’s poems in suitable places with his trusty tape recorder. In this episode he explores Larkin’s late poem The Mower.

Music: Just a Mood (A Blue Mood) by the Teddy Wilson Quartet

Produced by Lyn Lockwood, Gavin Hogg and Joe Riley

Please email Lyn at ⁠lynlockwood70@yahoo.co.uk⁠ with any questions, comments or suggestions for more readings for the podcast.

PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com 

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page:⁠ ⁠https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

In this episode, Lyn talks to Emeritus AC Bradley Professor of Modern Literature at Liverpool University Kelvin Everest and writer, lecturer and poet Dr Jane Bluett, who is the poetry editor for English In Education. 

Monica and Philip met in Leicester in 1947, and although Philip soon left Leicester for Belfast and then Hull, Monica stayed as a lecturer at Leicester University for the next 34 years until her retirement. Their life long love affair was a source of great joy and great anguish for both of them. Kelvin tells us about his two years working alongside Monica as a young lecturer in the late 1970s. Jane reflects on Monica’s role as the woman in the background - like Emma Hardy or Viv Eliot - and discusses her influence on Larkin’s poetry. Monica was born on 7th May 2022 and so this podcast marks her centenary which, of course, she shares with Philip Larkin.

Having met through their shared background of poetry and education, Lyn and Jane also read their own poems about Philip Larkin.

References:

Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica ed. Anthony Thwaite (2011), Andrew Motion: A Writer’s Life (1994), John Sutherland: Monica Jones, Philip Larkin and Me: Her Life and Long Loves (2021), Martin Amis: Inside Story (2020), Philip Larkin: Selected Letters ed. Anthony Thwaite (1993) George Crabbe: The Borough (1810), Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes (1943), Dennis Telford: Monica Dearest Bun, A Haydon Bridge Love Story (2014) Kingsley Amis: Lucky Jim (1954).

Haydon Bridge blue plaque: http://www.haydon-bridge.co.uk/larkin.php

Larkin poems referred to: An Arundel Tomb, Annus Horribilis, Show Saturday, Talking In Bed, Wild Oats.

Monica reads One More Quadrille by Winthrop Mackworth Praed (1802-1839). More information can be found here https://literarywoolgatherings.wordpress.com/2020/07/04/winthrop-mackworth-praed-part-1/ and The End of the Episode by Thomas Hardy (1909).

Kelvin Everest: Keats and Shelley Winds of Light (2021) Keats and Shelley: Winds of Light combines unrivalled textual knowledge, biographical and contextual expertise, and profoundly insightful close readings of the poetry in a selection of outstanding essays from a leading critic of English Romantic Poetry. (OUP).

This podcast is one of the many Centenary events that celebrate 100 years since the birth of Philip Larkin run by the Philip Larkin Society and Larkin100.

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Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Audio editing by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

That Whitsun, I was late getting away:

Joe Riley, teacher and poet of no great renown, is a lifelong lover of Larkin. In this series he attempts to read some of Larkin's poems in suitable places with his trusty tape recorder. In this episode, Joe takes his seat on the 11.31 to London Waterloo and reads The Whitsun Weddings.

Music: Body and Soul by Coleman Hawkins and his Orchestra

Produced by Lyn Lockwood, Gavin Hogg and Joe Riley

Please email Lyn at lynlockwood70@yahoo.co.uk with any questions, comments or suggestions.

PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com

Theme music: The Horns of the Morning by the Mechanicals from their album The Righteous Jazz

In our first full episode, we talk to Edwin (Eddie) Dawes, chairman of the Philip Larkin Society and former Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Hull. Eddie was Chairman of the Library Committee for a record period of eleven years, during which time he worked closely with Philip Larkin. He is now Professor Emeritus. As a friend and colleague of Philip Larkin, he was honoured to accept the invitation to chair the Larkin Society on its foundation in 1995. Eddie shares his memories of working with Philip Larkin and their friendship, the role of the Society and a guest lecture from Grayson Perry in 2017. 

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.
Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band.
Audio production by Simon Galloway. 

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter.
Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here.

At the time of recording this podcast we received the sad news that our founding chairman Professor Eddie Dawes had passed away on the 3rd March 2023 at the age of 97. Gavin and I were very privileged to be able to record the very first Tiny podcast with Eddie at his home in Hull. Eddie was so open to new ideas and ways of doing things. He was so supportive of my crazy idea to have a society podcast and was extremely patient as I fussed around with my microphone and notes. But I knew that Eddie had to be our very first guest- he was- and still is- the world’s leading authority on the history of magic, a pioneering biochemist, the PLS chairman for over 20 years and  good friends with Philip Larkin himself. A remarkable lifetime and a really lovely, gentle person who, as current chair Graham Chesters said, did indeed wear his exceptional gifts lightly.

Our guests this week are Clarissa Hard, PLS trustee and editor of About Larkin, and Francesca Gardner, who join me to talk about things and objects- objects in Larkin’s poetry and the significant objects in Larkin’s life; cigarette packets, socks, lawnmowers, vases, photo albums and more.

Francesca Gardner Larkin’s Meditating Machines (PLS Conference 2022) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHFDxFakbq4

Clarissa Hard Larkin: Churchgoer? (PLS Conference 2022)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PARTGcDGyq8

Home is So Sad, from 1st April to 13th May at Beverley Art gallery.

Home is So Sad presents newly commissioned paintings and installation art by Seoul-based artists Yeonkyoung Lee and Sam Robinson. Their work reflects a long-standing interest in the life and work of Philip Larkin, the details of everyday life, and the idea of ‘home’ as a fluid concept. Alongside this, the artists have selected pieces from the permanent collections of East Riding Museums and the Philip Larkin Society. During the exhibition there is an additional display of Larkin artefacts on show in the red gallery and there is a beautiful vase used as the main image on the publicity poster of course.

https://www.eastridingmuseums.co.uk/whats-on/?entry=home_is_so_sad

A Joyous Shot Friday 14th April, East Riding Theatre, Beverley

An evening of Larkin inspired words and music  with Hull writer Vicky Foster, Beverley poet Chris Sewart and The Mechanicals Band- all of whom are old friends of the podcast. Please come along and enjoy what I’m sure will be a wonderful evening.

https://www.eastridingtheatre.co.uk/philip-larkin-a-joyous-shot/

Larkin poems discussed:

High Windows, The Mower, Aubade, Wires, Aubade, Reference Back, Ambulances, Afternoons, Self’s The Man, Dockery and Son, Here, The Whitsun Weddings, Home Is So Sad.

Other books and references:

Rime of the Ancient Mariner by ST Coleridge, Ozymandia by PB Shelley, The Mower by Andrew Marvell, Richard Bradford, The Importance of Elsewhere (Francis Howard Publishing, 2015), J. H. Prynne Acquisition of Love,  Mark Waldron I wish I loved lawnmowers, Bill Brown Thing Theory, Gaston Bachelard The Material Imagination.

Podcast produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg

PLS Membership and information: The Philip Larkin Society – Philip Larkin

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Reading Larkin’s poetry

Eddie Dawes - The Trees (Aug 2022)   

Graham Chesters- The First Thing (Aug 2021) 

David Quantick - Days (Aug 22)

Imtiaz Dharker - Broadcast (Aug 22)

Martin Jennings - High Windows (Aug 24) Nominated by Graham Chesters

Hans Rutten introducing and reading An April Sunday Brings the Snow in English and Dutch  (Aug 21)

Richard Johnson- Sad Steps (Aug 21)

Sally Button- To The Sea (Aug 21)

Joe Riley - Church Going (Aug 24)

Devon Allison- Cut Grass (Aug 24) Nominated by Chris Sewart

Andrew Motion- The Old Fools (Aug 2024)

Philip Pullen- Show Saturday (March 21)

Celebrating Larkin’s Contemporaries

Triona Adams reads the opening paragraph of Barbara Pym’s Excellent Women (April 22)

Zachary Leader with Julian Henry on the writing of Lucky Jim (nominated by Daniel Vince) (April 21)

Ann Thwaite reads Philip Larkin in New Orleans by Anthony Thwaite (May 24)

Enjoying Larkin Conversation

James Booth and Betty Mackereth- Just what did Betty make of Larkin’s poems? (June 24) (Nominated by Sally Button)

John Robins and Robin Allender- Captain Beefheart: Larkin fan. (March 22)

Rachael Galletly and Lyn Lockwood-  A house full of Larkin (May 22)

Chris Sewart and Phil Pullen- Larkin and The White Album (Nov 23)

Rosie Millard and Lyn Lockwood - The wonders of Solar (Feb 24)

Music:

Monty Sunshine- Petit Fleur

Wes Finch and the Mechanicals Band - The Horns of the Morning and The Trees

Thank you to all the PLS Trustees, HVPs and members for their support and thank you to the huge support from our listeners and guests.

Produced by Simon Galloway, Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg.

The Society is looking forward to the Centenary celebrations next year, but we wanted to mark what would have been Larkin's 99th birthday this year by reading his poems. The readings have been recorded and submitted by PLS society members, trustees, honorary vice presidents and podcast listeners from across the world. Larkin was famously reluctant to read his poems in public, but we hope listeners enjoy hearing his words being read out loud. Please raise a glass and join us with our birthday celebrations! This is the second of two parts.

Poems and readers featured as follows.

The Challenges of Life

Reasons for Attendance - Alex Howard

Continuing to Live - Adam Crawford

Reference Back - Philip Watts

Sad Steps - Richard Johnston

Home is So Sad - Carmel Morgan

The Darker Side of Life

Faith Healing - Robert Johnson

A Study of Reading Habits - Tim Holmes

Aubade – Roy Evans

Love and Compassion

An April Sunday - Sue Mendus

The Mower – Maureen Docherty

Places Loved Ones - Rich Tuner

The Old Fools - Michael Farman

At Grass - Julian Wild

Experience

Long Sight in Age - Clarissa Hard

Started to Say - Martin Locock

I Remember I Remember - Nigel Mc Bride

Wild Oats - Wes Finch

Dockery and Son - Jim Moliski

Celebration

To the Sea - Daniel Gallimore

The Trees - Philip Watts

High Windows - Tony de Kok

Here  - Rosie Millard

1952-1977 - Chris Sewart

Broadcast - Charlie Connolly

The Mower - Belinda Garry

Please also have a listen to Charlie Connolly's wonderful podcast Coastal Stories and Philip Watts's fascinating work at https://elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk/. Thank you to Rob White and the team at Retford Library for contributing the video reading of Places, Loved Ones that we have featured on our Twitter account. You can also find more readings of Larkin's poetry by Julian Wild on YouTube.

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Audio editing by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

Welcome to a very special episode of Tiny In All That Air, celebrating Philip Larkin's 100th birthday. This episode has been made with the generous help of many of our fantastic honorary vice presidents, who have many different connections with Philip Larkin, the man and the writer: former secretary of State for Health and Social care, Alan Johnson; Larkin biographer, friend and literary executor Andrew Motion; writer David Quantick; writer Ann Thwaite; academic and magician Dale Salwak; artist Grayson Perry; poet Imtiaz Dharker; sculptor Martin Jennings; writer Blake Morrison; Professor James Booth; founding chairman Professor Eddie Dawes; and our current chair Rosie Millard. Thank you so much to all our HVPs past and present for all their support of the society and thank you to you for listening.

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Audio editing by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

Larkin has a rather curious place in the academic world- a little bit on the edge of things (maybe that’s how he would have liked it?). Lyn chats to Dr Alex Howard, Dr Kyra Piperides and Clarissa Hard who are all at different stages of their doctoral studies on Larkin’s writing. Alex and Clarissa have recently become new trustees of the Philip Larkin Society. We also have a reading of Church Going from PLS member Joe James.

Poems discussed: Aubade, High Windows, Take One Home for the Kiddies, Myxomatosis, At Grass, The Whitsun Weddings, Here, The Mower, The Old Fools, The Winter Palace

Topics discussed: Teaching and studying Larkin, Larkin and landscape, younger readers of Larkin, Ted Hughes, TS Eliot, Down Cemetery Road (BBC)

Larkin’s Travelling Spirit, The Place, Space and Journeys of Philip Larkin Alex Howard, 2020, Palgrave Macmillan (https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030534714)

The Complete Poems of Philip Larkin   Philip Larkin  (Author), Archie Burnett (Editor), 2012, Faber and Faber

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Audio editing by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

This ‘Larkin in Lockdown’ episode was recorded specially to look at Larkin in the context of Covid-19 and we would like to send out thoughts out to all our supporters and listeners at this difficult time. Lyn and Kyra look at Larkin’s poems of social isolation as well as his poetry about spring and nature. We read from and discuss a range of Larkin’s poems, including Best Society, Here, High Windows, Going, Going, The Whitsun Weddings, Coming and The Trees. We also surprise ourselves with current mole behaviour, recommend a fellow literary podcast, and Lyn reveals what she is going to do first when social distancing comes to an end. 

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.  
Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band.  
Audio production by Simon Galloway. 

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air
Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/ 

Philip Larkin was not just a poet, he was also a jazz journalist. His collected articles can be found in All What Jazz: A Record Diary 1961–1971. (Faber and Faber. 1985). Larkin's love of jazz was less prominent in his poetry, but one poem stands out as a startling 'love song' to New Orleans  - For Sidney Bechet, (to be found in The Whitsun Weddings, 1964). In this episode we tell the fascinating story of saxophonist Sidney Bechet and how his life and music interwove with that of Larkin's. We have some amazing jazz to accompany us and some voices of the time, opening with Philip Larkin himself.

For Sidney Bechet from The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin (1964, Faber)- reading taken from The Sunday Sessions (2009)

Philip Larkin, Life, Art and Love by James Booth (Bloomsbury 2015)

Tracks from Larkins’ Jazz (Properbox 55):

· Sidney Bechet and his New Orleans Footwarmers- Nobody Knows the Way I Feel This Morning and Blue Horizon

· Frankie Traumbauer and his Orchestra- Way Down Yonder in New Orleans

Other jazz tracks:

Sidney Bechet- Sheik of Araby and Petit Fleur

Monty Sunshine – Petit Fleur

Charlie Parker – A Night in Tunisia

Thom Yorke on Desert Island Discs https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008qg3

La La Land (dir. Damien Chazelle, 2016)

Treat It Gentle by Sidney Bechet (Cassell, 1960)

Sidney Bechet The Wizard of Jazz by John Chilton (Macmillan 1987)

An Enormous Yes In memoriam Philip Larkin (1922-1985)(Peterloo Poets, 1986)

Leonard Bechet clip from ‘Jelly Roll Morton Godfather of Jazz’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFpkgZBf-mc

https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

Audio production by Gavin Hogg, mastering by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

 Zachary Leader is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Roehampton. He grew up in California but has lived in Britain for over fifty years and has dual US/UK citizenship. He was educated at Northwestern University, Trinity College, Cambridge, and Harvard and is the biographer of Kingsley Amis and edited the Letters of Kingsley Amis. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and General Editor of The Oxford History of Life-Writing, a 7-volume series published by OUP.

PLS Trustee Daniel Vince is a soon-to-be graduate of the University of York, where he earned his MA by Research on the post-war working class novel. He has recently started work on his PhD entitled ‘The New University in Post-War British Literature’, in which Larkin and the University of Hull play a significant role – other writers include Malcolm Bradbury, David Lodge and Kingsley Amis. A trustee of The Philip Larkin Society, our e-newsletter editor and a member of our events committee,. 

Today’s conversation focuses on John Wain’s Hurry On Down (1953) and Philip Larkin’s Jill (1946).

Notes and further reading and event links

The Life of Saul Bellow by Zachary Leader (Cape, 2015)

The Oxford Handbook of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Oxford Handbooks) 

by Michael O'Neill (Editor) (Oxford Handbooks, 2017)

The Life of Kingsley Amis by Zachary Leader (Vintage, 2007)

The Letters of Kingsley Amis by Zachary Leader (Editor), (Harper Collins, 2001)

Cultural Nationalism and Modern Manuscripts: Kingsley Amis, Saul Bellow, Franz Kafka

Zachary Leader

https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/cultural-nationalism-and-modern-manuscripts-kingsley-amis-saul-be 2013

Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh (1928)

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (1954)

Portrait of a Lady by Henry James (1881)

Jill by Philip Larkin (1946)

Hurry on Down by John Wain (1953)

Changing Places by David Lodge (1975)

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (1937)

The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger (1951)

The Movement: English Poetry and Fiction of the 1950's by Blake Morrison (1980)

The Movement Reconsidered: Essays on Larkin, Amis, Gunn, Davie and Their Contemporaries by Zachary Leader (OUP, 2011)

The Importance of Philip Larkin by John Wain, The American Scholar, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Summer 1986), pp. 349-364 

Interviews with Britain's Angry Young Men: Kingsley Amis, John Braine, Bill Hopkins, John Wain and Colin Wilson: 2 (Milford Series) by Dale Salwak (Borgo Press, 2007)

Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love by James Booth (2015, Bloomsbury)

Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life by Andrew Motion (Faber, 1994)

Philip Larkin Selected Letters ed. Anthony Thwaite (Faber and Faber, 1993)

Out of Reach: The Poetry of Philip Larkin by Andrew Swarbrick (1997)

Larkin poems mentioned:

Livings, The Importance of Elsewhere, The Whitsun Weddings, High Windows, Absences, If, My Darling, This Be The Verse

Other references:

The Sun (British tabloid newspaper, founded 1964), John Braine (English novelist 1922-1986), Ben Johnson (English playwright- 1597-1637), Franz Kafka (Czech novelist, 1883- 1924)

Book tickets for Chichester event here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/philip-larkin-society-members-event-at-chichester-cathedral-tickets-781230199557?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

Register for schools event here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/higher-windows-post-16-english-enrichment-day-at-the-university-of-hull-tickets-737140074807?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

Register for Conference 2024 here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/philip-larkin-society-conference-2024-tickets-769584597247?aff=oddtdtcreator

James Booth is the Philip Larkin Society's Literary Adviser & Co-Editor of About Larkin, the society's journal. He has published two books on Philip Larkin: Philip Larkin: Writer (Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991) and Philip Larkin: The Poet’s Plight (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). He has also edited Larkin’s early girls’-school stories and poems as Trouble at Willow Gables and Other Fictions (Faber, 2002), and a volume of critical essays, New Larkins for Old (Macmillan, 2000), arising from the first Hull International Conference on the Work of Philip Larkin mounted by the Society in 1997. He has recently retired from the Department of English at the University of Hull. His new biography of Larkin: Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love was published in August 2014. In the first part of our conversation with James, he tells us about how he became an expert on Larkin including his time as lecturer of the University of Hull. 

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.  
Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band.  
Audio production by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter.  
Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here.

Dr Sam Perry teaches English Literature at the University of Hull, where he is a member of the Philip Larkin Centre for Poetry &amp; Creative Writing. He is the author of Chameleon Poet: R.S. Thomas and the Literary Tradition (Oxford University Press) and is currently working on a long- term project exploring the representation of children and childhood in modern poetry.

Other writers discussed/mentioned: WB Yeats/Ted Hughes/Edward Thomas/ RS Thomas/Seamus Heaney/ William Wordsworth/William Blake/ Thomas Hardy/ Dylan Thomas /Charles Dickens/JD Salinger/Virginia Woolf/Kingsley Amis/Sylvia Plath/Ann Thwaite

Larkin poems discussed: Sunny Prestatyn/ Essential Beauty/The Large Cool Store/ Mr Bleaney/Aubade/Home is So Sad/ Wild Oats/ Dockery and Son/Ignorance/Afternoons/An Arundel Tomb/ I Remember, I Remember/ This Be The Verse/High Windows

Other references: Jim Sutton’s letters to Philip Larkin/The art of Rene Magritte (1898-1967)/Larkin’s Doodles/Letters to Monica Ed. Anthony Thwaite (Faber 2011)/The Secret Garden - Francis Hodgson Burnett (Heinemann 1911)/The Image of Childhood- Peter Coveney (Penguin 1967)

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Audio editing by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

In this introductory episode, we talk to Kyra Piperides Jaques about her involvement in the Philip Larkin Society and look ahead to what you can expect to hear throughout the series. Larkin biographer James Booth (and future guest) on The Building, the poem discussed by Kyra;

Yes, the Building has got to be the new HRI on Anlaby Road. The description clinches it surely - a lucent honeycomb (I seem to remember, earlier, it was painted yellow, not blue as now), a clean-sliced cliff, with the slums still (then) huddled around it. This is the hospital Larkin attended in January 1972 with a crick in his neck (opened by the Queen in June 1967.)

Our first full episode will be available on 2nd December 2019. Subscribe to this podcast for free via your favourite podcast app.

Presented by Lyn Lockwood
Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band
Audio production by Simon Galloway

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter
Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here.

Songwriter and musician Wes Finch from The Mechanicals Band joins us to discuss Larkin and to tell us about ‘THE RIGHTEOUS JAZZ’ – a new Larkin-inspired musical and theatre production.

This is the podcast for anyone who is interested in Philip Larkin. We will bring you new insights into Larkin's life and writing by talking to people with fascinating stories to tell and unusual connections to the great poet himself.

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.  
Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band.  
Audio production by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter.  
Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here.

In this episode we speak to Philip Larkin Society trustee, Philip Pullen, a writer and researcher who is also the society's Media and Publicity Officer and chair of the Larkin 100 celebrations, being planned by the society for 2022. 

He talks to us about the plans for Larkin 100 and his extensive research into Larkin's life, which has uncovered many fascinating stories about the poet and his family. 

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.  
Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band.  
Audio production by Simon Galloway. 

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air
Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/ 

In this episode we talk to Beverley based poet Chris Sewart in his second appearance on Tiny in All That Air, and Phil Pullen, trustee of the PLS, who regular listeners will be familiar with from a number of previous episodes. We talk about Chris's poetry and his upcoming performance as the 'warm up' for Roger McGough in Beverley next year (details below). We also discuss Phil's new project for the PLS You-Tube account documenting the Larkin Trail. We end the episode considering three poems from High Windows- The Explosion, Livings and Forget What Did- as we look ahead to the 50th anniversary of the publication of High Windows in 2024 and the PLS Conference in March at the University of Hull.

Larkin poems mentioned:

Annus Mirabilis, Livings, Forget What Did, The Explosion, To The Sea, Going Going, The Building, Aubade, The Old Fools, The Trees, Solar,Cut Grass, Friday Night at the Royal Station Hotel, How Distant, I Remember, I Remember, MCMXIV, At Grass, Mr Bleaney, Absences, Broadcast, Dublinesque, Show Saturday, Here

The Less Deceived (Faber, 1955) The Whitsun Weddings (Faber 1964), High Windows (Faber, 1974)

Chris Sewart reads his poems A Boy and Cartoon Kiss.

Home Is So Sad Beverley Art Gallery April 2023 : ‘Home is so Sad’, showcased newly commissioned artwork, alongside pieces from the permanent collections of East Riding Museums and the Philip Larkin Society featured the paintings and installations of Seoul-based artists Yeonkyoung Lee and Sam Robinson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr-IcSIS4mY

A Joyous Shot

https://www.visiteastyorkshire.co.uk/event/philip-larkin-%E2%80%93-a-joyous-shot/191184101/

Details of the PLS Conference and other events can be found here:

https://philiplarkin.com/uncategorized/forthcoming-events/

The link for Chris’s poetry workshop and appearance with Roger McGough at the Stage4Beverley festival is https://stage4beverley.com/

 Today I Cycled to Beverley  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QYMXXnJ_e8

Lyn Talking about Sylvia Plath: Horror Poet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVoi999Eywk

The Beatles- Please, Please Me (1963, Parlophone) Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band (Parlophone, 1967), The White Album (1968, Apple)

Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse Book ed. Philip Larkin (OUP, 1973)

Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love by James Booth (2015, Bloomsbury)

Somewhere becoming Rain: Collected Writings on Philip Larkin (Picador, 2019)

The Philip Larkin I Knew by Maeve Brennan (MUP, 2002)

Philip Larkin, The Marvell Press and Me by Jean Hartley (Faber and Faber, 2012)

Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life by Andrew Motion (Faber, 1994)

Letters to Monica by Philip Larkin ed. Anthony Thwaite. (Faber and Faber, 2011)

Philip Larkin Selected Letters ed. Anthony Thwaite (Faber and Faber, 1993)

Required Writing: Miscellaneous Pieces 1955-1982 by Philip Larkin (Faber and Faber, 1983)

Philip Larkin: The Man and His Work ed. Dale Salwak (Palgrave, 1983)

Philip Larkin, Monitor, Down Cemetery Road https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Coe11pgoj8E

Authors mentioned by Chris

Kit de Waal | Kit de Waal

Summerwater by Sarah Moss review – a dark holiday in Scotland | Fiction | The Guardian

The Mersey Sound: Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten (Penguin, first published 1967, since reprinted many times!)

   Jonathan Edwards – The Poetry Society: Poems

Rachel Long (rachel-long.com)

'Instead of a card' poetry pamphlets – UK based independent publisher (candlestickpress.co.uk)

The Catch by Simon Armitage https://www.poeticous.com/simon-armitage/the-catch-forget

Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg

PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com 

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Lyn and Rachael have been friends for over twenty years. In this episode, they discuss their shared enthusiasm for all things Larkin. 

Larkin poems referred to: Afternoons, Dockery and Son, The Mower, Sunny Prestatyn, The Large Cool Store, A Study of Reading Habits, Toads, Toads Revisited, As Bad as A Mile, Vers De Societe, Home is So Sad, At Grass, The Old Fools, Solar, Church Going, For Sidney Bechet, Reference Back, Wild Oats, Take One Home For the Kiddies. 

Prose: Jill and A Girl In Winter by Philip Larkin. 

Other Larkinalia:  Trouble at Willow Gables, Selected Letters of Philip Larkin ed. Anthony Thwaite, The Philip Larkin I Knew by Maeve Brennan, Treat It Gentle by Sidney Bechet, The Sunday Sessions. 

Other bits and bobs: And When Did You Last See Your Father? by Blake Morrison, Modern Life is Rubbish (LP) by Blur, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Waste Land by TS Eliot. 

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.
Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band.
Audio production by Simon Galloway. 

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air
Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

The Philip Larkin Society always mark the 2nd of December which is the anniversary of Philip Larkin’s death in 1985. In 2022 we marked the date with the unveiling of a blue plaque in Coventry at Larkin’s birthplace and we held an evening event at Westminster Abbey with poetry readings at the site of his plaque in Poet’s Corner. It felt right to do something a little more informal and closer to home in Hull. This episode is a live recording of the quiz in the Haworth Pub, Hull.

Thank you to Honorary Vice President of the Philip Larkin Society Alan Johnson for being such super quiz master and for our esteemed President Rosie Millard for making the journey up to Hull just for this event.

The whole quiz and the answers are featured, so you can play along!

The quiz questions and answers can also be found on the PLS website.

Venue- The Haworth Pub, 449 Beverley Road, Hull, HU6 7LD

On site recording and first edit by Philip Pullen

Music: Zat You, Santa Claus? by Louis Armstrong and The Commanders ( November 1953)

Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg

PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com 

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Anne Fine gave our Distinguished Guest Lecture at the PLS AGM in 2004 and here we reproduce her talk in its entirety. Anne muses on how she discovered Larkin as a teenager who couldn't resist poems with swear words in, but also how she came to see the connections between Larkin’s poetry and her own life- especially The Trees- as well as her admiration for Larkin the professional writer as a fellow member of the ‘business.’

Anne is best known for children's books,  but she also writes for adults. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and she was appointed an OBE in 2003. She has won the annual Carnegie Medal twice and she also won the Guardian Prize, Smarties Prize, two Whitbread Awards, and she was twice Children's Author of the Year. From 2001 to 2003, Anne was the Children's Laureate in the UK. In 1987, Anne published Madame Doubtfire, which became the classic Twentieth Century Fox movie Mrs Doubtfire, starring Robin Williams.

Thank you to Anne for kindly giving us permission to use this talk on the podcast.

Lyn and Rachael look back on the events of 2020 in the PLS world. This episode also includes contributions from Professor Graham Chesters (PLS Chair), novelist Chris Walsh, PLS trustee Julian Wild, Philip Pullen (Chair of Larkin100), PLS members Sally Button and James Tarry, Leigh Bird and Esther Johnson from Ships In The Sky, Hull.

Poems discussed: Self’s the Man, Vers De Societe, Home Is So Sad, The Mower.

Topics discussed: PLS online events, Coventry City of Culture, Larkin100, Larkin embroidery, cricket, John Betjeman, Larkin on YouTube, About Larkin, merchandise, the Larkin quiz, lockdown.

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.
Audio production by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air
Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

The Society is looking forward to the Centenary celebrations next year, but we wanted to mark what would have been Larkin's 99th birthday this year by reading his poems. The readings have been recorded and submitted by PLS society members, trustees, honorary vice presidents and podcast listeners from across the world. Larkin was famously reluctant to read his poems in public, but we hope listeners enjoy hearing his words being read out loud. Please raise a glass and join us with our birthday celebrations! This is the first of two parts.

Poems and readers featured as follows. 

The Challenges of Life

This Be the Verse - Helen Cooper

Life with a Hole in It - Wade Newman

First Sight - Gregg Walker

Days - David Quantick

Reasons for Attendance - Richard Johnston

The Darker Side of Life

The Building - Anne Gibson

Sunny Prestatyn - Wes Finch

Afternoons - Rachael Galletly

Mr Bleaney - Martin Duckworth

Love and Compassion

The Mower - Yuanyou Zhang

An April Sunday Brings the Snow – Hans Rutten

Places, Loved Ones - Laura Wilson

Love Songs in Age - Hugh Lester

Born Yesterday - Carmel Morgan

An Arundel Tomb - Ann Thwaite

Experience

Wires - Gregg Walker

Wild Oats – Cath Sked

New Eyes Each Year - Tony Peyser

This is the First Thing - Graham Chesters

Lines on a Young Ladies Photograph Album - Ingrid Keith

Toads Revisited - Tim Whitaker

Celebration

The Trees - Polly McMullan

The School in August - Casey Allen

Skin - Bert Molsom

To The Sea - Sally Button

Coming - Paul Evans

Is It For Now or For Always? - Lorna Simes

Here - Nick Smales

Please also head over to the Right In The Schoolies podcast for more Larkin poetry and check out Alan Johnson (honorary vice president of the Philip Larkin Society) reading Friday Night at the Royal Station Hotel on our Twitter feed. Thank you to all our contributors. Keep an eye out for Part 2 and many more readings.

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Audio editing by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

This episode features Belfast arts manager Hugh Odling- Smee and PLS trustee Philip Pullen who, as part of his centenary lecture tour, took part in the 2022 Belfast International Arts Festival with a talk on Larkin in Belfast. Hugh and Phil discuss the literary heritage that Belfast enjoys and Larkin’s life in Belfast between 1950 and 1955.

Books and writers discussed:

This episode has four contributors, all of whom have very different connections to Philip Larkin. 

Wes Finch from The Mechanicals Band performs his beautiful new setting of The Trees by Philip Larkin. 

Sophie Lewis, Folio Society editor, discusses the remarkable new limited edition of Philip Larkin’s Collected Poems, which is the first to combine both Larkin’s poems and photographs, with the introduction and image selection by Andrew Motion. https://www.foliosociety.com/uk/philip-larkin-collected-poems.html 

Esther Johnson, Professor of Film and Media at Sheffield Hallam University, talks to us about the new fundraising Ships In The Sky project and the creation of a wonderful reading of The North Ship by Philip Larkin. https://shipsinthesky.weebly.com/ 

Chris Sewart has moved from Leicester to Beverley (connections, connections!) and joined the PLS after winning the Larkin Prize of the East Riding Ways With Words Poetry Competition at the end of January with his poem, Fencing Project-1975, which was subsequently published in About Larkin. Here he reads his poetry and reflects on his deepening interest in the world of Larkin. 

https://festivalofwords.co.uk/poetry-comp/ 

Larkin poems discussed: Sunny Prestatyn, The North Ship, This Be The Verse, The Winter Palace, The Mower, Talking In Bed. 

Also discussed: Short and Sweet 101 Very Short Poems ed by Simon Armitage (Faber&Faber). 

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.
Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band.
Audio production by Simon Galloway. 

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air
Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/ 

This episode welcomes three Larkin100 trustees to look back on 2022; Graham Chesters, Phil Pullen, and teacher, writer and poet Vicky Foster who has a very particular connection to Hull and the work of Philip Larkin.

Vicky Foster Poet Hull

Please watch and subscribe; https://www.youtube.com/@thephiliplarkinsociety1930/featured

PLS Membership and information: The Philip Larkin Society – Philip Larkin

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Audio editing by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

In this second part of our conversation with James Booth, he talks about Larkin's development as a writer, takes a closer look at 'The Old Fools' and reflects on Larkin's long-term partner, Monica Jones.

James Booth is the Philip Larkin Society's Literary Adviser & Co-Editor of About Larkin, the society's journal. He has published two books on Philip Larkin: Philip Larkin: Writer (Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991) and Philip Larkin: The Poet’s Plight (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). He has also edited Larkin’s early girls’-school stories and poems as Trouble at Willow Gables and Other Fictions (Faber, 2002), and a volume of critical essays, New Larkins for Old (Macmillan, 2000), arising from the first Hull International Conference on the Work of Philip Larkin mounted by the Society in 1997. He has recently retired from the Department of English at the University of Hull. His new biography of Larkin: Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love was published in August 2014. 

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.  
Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band.  
Audio production by Simon Galloway.  

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter.  
Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here.  

The second of our two podcasts with a John Betjeman focus, our guest is writer and railway historian Greg Morse. Topics include Betjeman and Larkin’s relationship with the media, twentieth century architecture and cultural history and, of course, lots of poetry, both Larkin and Betjeman. 

Larkin poems mentioned: Church Going, Whitsun Weddings, High Windows, This Be The Verse, Toads, Essential Beauty, Home is So Sad, High Windows. 

Betjeman poems mentioned: Executive, A Lincolnshire Church, Death In Leamington, Croydon, Devonshire St W1, Summoned by Bells. 

A Girl in Winter by Philip Larkin (Faber and Faber, 1947) 

The Real John Betjeman  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjQC0PdHit4, (Channel 4, 2000) 

Railways Forever ( 7min documentary released 1970 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg4wpL2f2RE ) 

Metroland (BBC, 1973) 

Summoned by Bells (1976) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsDb-dgXnU4 

Time with Betjeman (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDlG7_2puao ) (BBC2, 1983) 

Railways Forever! https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-railways-for-ever-1970-online 

Monitor: A Poet in London (BBC, 1959) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p022kr11 

London’s Historic Railway Stations (John Murray, 1972) 

Monitor: Down Cemetery Road (BBC, 1964) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Coe11pgoj8E) 

Samuel West’s poetry readings ( https://soundcloud.com/user-115260978/sets/pandemic-poems-by-samuel-west)  

Grayson Perry, Kingsley Amis, Evelyn Waugh, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath 

Passport to Pimlico https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041737/ (1949, Ealing Studios) 

The Righteous Jazz by The Mechanicals Band The Righteous Jazz | The Mechanicals Band (bandcamp.com)

Betjeman Reading the Victorians by Greg Morse (2012, Sussex Academic Press) John Betjeman : Greg Morse (author) : 9781845195342 : Blackwell's

Betjeman by Greg Morse (2011, Shire Publications) John Betjeman (Shire Library) Greg Morse: Shire Publications (bloomsbury.com)

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Presented by Lyn Lockwood. 

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band.  Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz 

Audio production by Simon Galloway. 

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air 

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/ 

Daniel Vince joined the PLS board of trustees earlier this year and is currently studying for a Masters by research on the post-war novel at the University of York having graduated from Canterbury Christ Church University earlier this year. He is also an antiquarian book seller and can often be found hunting down rare and wonderful books. When the Barbara Pym Society invited a member of the PLS to present a paper at their AGM in Oxford this year, Daniel bravely took up the challenge. Daniel speaks to Lyn and reads his talk A Few Green Leaves: Pym, Larkin and Rural Retirement.

Larkin texts referenced: Aubade, Money, Spring, Here, Toads, The Mower, Cut Grass, High Windows, The Importance of Elsewhere,  A Girl In Winter (Faber 1947)

Barbara Pym novels: A Few Green Leaves, A Quartet in Autumn, The Sweet Dove Died

Other writers/references:  Ending Up by Kingsley Amis, The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, Hippopotamus by TS Eliot,

Further reading: The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym by Paula Byrne (2021) A Very Private Eye: The Diaries, Letters And Notebooks Of Barbara Pym ed. Hazel Holt (Macmillan 1984)

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Audio editing by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

In this episode, Lyn is joined by writer, comedian and BBC radio presenter John Robins, PLS Treasurer Thomas Gordon and writer and musician Robin Allender. The conversation focuses on some of Robin and John's favourite Larkin poems, such as Deceptions and I Remember, I Remember and their huge knowledge and love for Larkin's work.

Poems discussed: Sad Steps, High Windows, The Whitsun Weddings, Absences, Here, Livings, The Building, How, Dockery and Son, An Arundel Tomb, Deceptions, Afternoons, Mythological Introduction, I Remember, I Remember, Vers de Societie, The Life With a Hole in It, Toads, Toads Revisited, Home is So Sad, For Sidney Bechet, Going Going, The Mower

Larkin prose: All What Jazz, Required Writing

Other texts and references: Faber Book of Modern Verse- ed. Peter Porter, The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein (1937), On The Road, Hamlet, Yeats, John Betjeman, DH Lawrence, Iain Banks, Somewhere Becoming Rain by Clive James (2019), The Waste Land by TS Eliot (1922), Jackson Pollock, Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce (1939), Lennon Ono- The Wedding Album (1969), Queen, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart Safe As Milk (1967), Spin Magazine, Melody Maker, Bjork Venus as a Boy, Howl by Allen Ginsburg (1965), In Love With Hell by William Palmer (2021), The Thirsty Muse by Tom Dardis (1991), Kingsley Amis, Peter Cook, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (1943), Tom Paulin, The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger (1951), Joe Rogan (podcaster)

The Moon Under Water

BBC Radio 5 live - Elis James and John Robins

The Moon Under Water

All Episodes — Your Own Personal Beatles

This episode contains discussion of rape and alcohol misuse which some listeners may find upsetting, so please take care.

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Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Audio editing by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

Kieron Winn is a widely published poet and teacher whose debut collection The Mortal Man (2015) was glowingly reviewed by both Clive James and Melvyn Bragg. In this first of two episodes, Kieron talks to us about Toads, Dockery and Son, Myxamatosis and more, as well as The Flight from Bootle by John Betjeman, Kieron's thoughts on writing poetry and the 'lunar' landscape of Hull, taking in Tennyson, Wordsworth and Ted Hughes along the way. The podcast also features Kieron reading his own poem First Photo. More information about Kieron can be found at kieronwinn.com. 

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.  
Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band.  
Audio production by Simon Galloway. 

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air
Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/ 

Betty Mackereth was Philip Larkin’s secretary at the library at the University of Hull. They were work colleagues and good friends, growing  closer and more intimate, as the years went on. Betty turns 100 on 27th June 2024.

We begin with Betty herself in conversation with James Booth when James was beginning his research into his biography of Philip Larkin . James calls her, Larkin’s ‘ageing muse of vitality’.

After this, we hear directly from James Booth who spoke Lyn and trustee Philip Pullen at James’s house earlier this year.

Thank you and special birthday wishes to Betty and thank you to Magnus Mackereth, Betty’s nephew, for giving us his blessing. Thanks again to James Booth and Philip Pullen and Simon Galloway for support with sound production.

Mary Judd -- See "'What fun we had in the early sixties!' Philip Larkin and Mary Wrench (Judd)" by James Booth, in About Larkin 45 (April 2018). Having appreciated The Less Deceived, Mary (b.1923) applied for a post as Assistant Librarian in Hull in 1956, wanting to see "what a poet is like". Larkin interviewed her himself, and flattered (and also intimidated) by her familiarity with his poetry, saw her off from Hull on the coach with the words "I hope you'll come". She fitted into the Library well, befriending Maeve Brennan and Betty Mackereth, took part in the momentous move of the library into its new building in 1959, and stayed until 1964. She married Stephen Judd and Larkin visited her in the hospital where she gave birth to her first daughter, Helen in 1962. Larkin became a conscientious long-distance godfather to Helen, and kept in touch with Mary, sending her cards and the occasional letter.

Suzanne Uniacke. (There is a village in County Cork called Uniacke. The Uniackes came over with the Conqueror. It's a rare name!) Suzanne was a Reader in the Philosophy Department in Hull from 2006 to 2013.

Pauline Dennison was a library colleague of Maeve Bennan. She cut a formidable figure in charge of the Issue Desk in the Brynmor Jones for many years.

Brenda Moon https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/31/brenda-moon-obituary

Don Lee Don was a trustee of the PLS for many years, and developed many Larkin walks in sites across the country that are still used today.

Ivor Maw Philip Pullen- My Friend Ivor Maw (About Larkin 42) https://philiplarkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/About-Larkin-42.pdf

Poems mentioned:

Love Again, The Dance, I Am Jake Balakowsky, Morning at last there in the snow, When First We Faced, We Met at the end of the party, Aubade, Symphony in White Major, Oxford, Broadcast, Toads Revisited, The Large Cool Store

The Philip Larkin I Knew- Maeve Brennan (Manchester University Press, 2002)

Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love by James Booth  (Bloomsbury, 2015)

Letters Home by Philip Larkin ed. James Booth (Faber, 2018)

The Importance of Elsewhere: Philip Larkin’s Photographs by Richard Bradford (Francis Lincoln, 2015)

Philip Larkin Collected Poems ed. Anthony Thwaite (Faber, 1988)

The Complete Poems of Philip Larkin ed. Archie Burnett (Faber, 2012)

Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life by Andrew Motion (Faber, 1994)

https://philiplarkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/About-Larkin-35.pdf  Early Days in Philip Larkin’s Library Betty Mackereth

https://philiplarkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/About-Larkin-25.pdf   'New Brooms' Philip Larkin Betty Mackereth

Philip Larkin and the Third Woman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRibIbHPAws

‘Former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion discovers an unseen and unpublished poem by Philip Larkin when he returns to Hull to meet one of the poet's former lovers. Speaking for the first time about her relationship with Larkin, Betty Mackereth reveals the man behind the famous poems.’

Cast: Andrew Motion

First episode date: 7 December 2010

Robbins report https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_Report

Music:

Laura - Sidney Bechet

Petit Fleur- Monty Sunshine

Reckless Blues- Bessie Smith

In this third and final part of our in-depth conversation with James Booth, he tells us about his own books on the poet, Larkin's early schoolgirl poems and astonishing use of language. If you haven't heard parts one and two, be sure to give them a listen.

James Booth is the Philip Larkin Society's Literary Adviser & Co-Editor of About Larkin, the society's journal. He has published two books on Philip Larkin: Philip Larkin: Writer (Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991) and Philip Larkin: The Poet’s Plight (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). He has also edited Larkin’s early girls’-school stories and poems as Trouble at Willow Gables and Other Fictions (Faber, 2002), and a volume of critical essays, New Larkins for Old (Macmillan, 2000), arising from the first Hull International Conference on the Work of Philip Larkin mounted by the Society in 1997. He has recently retired from the Department of English at the University of Hull. His new biography of Larkin: Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love was published in August 2014.

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.  
Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band.  
Audio production by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air
Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

Today on the 9th August we celebrate Philip Larkin’s birthday and we read High Windows from start to end, in order to mark the 50th anniversary of Larkin’s final collection. Philip Pullen and Graham Chesters chat to Lyn about High Windows. Please note there is some strong language and challenging themes in the collection. Poems and readers:

To the Sea- Lyn Lockwood Deputy Chair of the Philip Larkin Society

Sympathy in White Major- Dale Salwak Honorary Vice President of the Philip Larkin Society, professor English, magician

The Trees-Carole Collinson Trustee of the Philip Larkin Society

Livings: I, II, III-Clarissa Hard Trustee of the Philip Larkin Society

Forget What Did- Gavin Hogg member of the Philip Larkin Society, writer, podcast host

High Windows- Martin Jennings Honorary Vice President of the Philip Larkin Society, sculptor

Friday Night in the Royal Station Hotel -Alan Johnson Honorary Vice President of the Philip Larkin Society, writer, former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

The Old Fools-Andrew Motion Honorary Vice President of the Philip Larkin Society, writer, former Poet Laureate.

Going, Going-Kate Romano BBC Radio 3 producer, musician, CEO Stapleford Granary

The Card-Players-David Quantick Honorary Vice President of the Philip Larkin Society, novelist, screenwriter.

The Building-Ann Thwaite Honorary Vice President of the Philip Larkin Society, biographer.

Posterity-RM Healey founder member of the Alliance of Literary Societies

Dublinesque-Graham Chesters Chair of the Philip Larkin Society

Homage to a Government-Trevor Norwood Trustee of the Philip Larkin Society

This Be The Verse-Chris Sewart member of the Philip Larkin Society, prize winning poet based in East Yorkshire

How Distant-Cath Sked member of the Philip Larkin Society, former English teacher, arts enthusiast.

Sad Steps-Blake Morrison Honorary Vice President of the Philip Larkin Society, poet and novelist.

Solar-Rosie Millard President of the Philip Larkin Society, journalist, writer and broadcaster

Annus Mirabilis-Stewart Lee Honorary Vice President of the Philip Larkin Society, writer and comedian

Vers de Société-Rachael Galletly Trustee of the Philip Larkin Society

Show Saturday-Philip Pullen Trustee of the Philip Larkin Society

Money-Simon Galloway, audio producer, podcast host

Cut Grass-Devon Allison Chair of the Barbara Pym Society

The Explosion-Vicky Foster member of the Philip Larkin Society, writer, performer, poet and teacher based in Hull

Some references and further reading:

Eugene Boudin - 1824-1898- French landscape painter who focused on the outdoors and particularly harbours and beaches.

It Happened Like This by Vicky Foster (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024)

The Old Fools Animation directed by Ruth Lingford, narrated by Bob Geldof https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376020/

We Peaked At Paper by Gavin Hogg and Hamish Ironside (Boatwhistle Books, 2022) https://www.boatwhistle.com/store/item/hogg--ironside-we-peaked-at-paper/

The Guardian review of High Windows https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/06/philip-larkin-poetry-high-windows-archive-1974

The Giddy Carousel of Pop presented by Simon Galloway and Gavin Hogg https://giddypoppod.home.blog/

Stewart Lee tour dates and news https://www.stewartlee.co.uk/

Martin Jennings public sculptor, Royal Coin https://martinjennings.com/

The Alliance of Literary Societies https://allianceofliterarysocieties.wordpress.com/

The Barbara Pym Society https://barbara-pym.org/

Sleeping on Islands: A Life In Poetry by Andrew Motion (Faber and Faber, 2023)

Two Sisters by Blake Morrison (The Borough Press, 2023)

Upcoming events

Please join Lyn Lockwood and Chris Ewart in Hull on 21st September 2024:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/some-dappled-park-a-poetry-writing-workshop-inspired-by-philip-larkins-hull-tickets-940211757677?aff=oddtdtcreator

Larkin Weekend 13-15 September 2024 at Stapleford Granary  

https://www.staplefordgranary.org.uk/whats-on/events/larkin-weekend

Philip Larkin was just five years old when Hardy died in 1928, but this English poet and novelist was going to have a profound influence on Larkin’s writing.

To discuss some of the connections between Larkin and Hardy, Lyn is joined by  Emeritus  Professor of English at the University of Hull Jane Thomas and composer Arthur Keegan.

Thomas Hardy Novels: Jude the Obscure, Far From the Madding Crowd, Jude the Obscure, A Pair of Blue Eyes, 

Thomas Hardy Collections: The Dynasts, Winter Words, Poems 1912-13

Thomas Hardy poems: Drummer Hodge, Neutral Tones, Afterwards, Lying Awake, A Circular

Philip Larkin poems: No Road, The Mower, Aubade, Skin

Other references: DH Lawrence, Sappho, Darwin, JS Mill, WB Yeats, Dylan Thomas, Gustav Holst, Gerald Finzie, Ivor Gurney, Nicholas Moore (composer), Benjamin Britten, Imogen Holst, Robin Milford, Henry Handel Richardson,

Early Larkin  by James Underwood (Bloomsbury 2021)

Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love by James Booth (Bloomsbury 2015)

The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse ed Philip Larkin (Oxford 1973)

Required Writing-  Miscellaneous Pieces by Philip Larkin (1955-1982) Faber 1983 (‘Wanted, a good Hardy critic’)

Astonishing the Brickwork by James L. Orwin (Dancing Sisters, 2022)

https://philiplarkin.com/product/astonishing-the-brickwork-philip-larkin-set-to-music-jim-orwin/

Peaches by The Stranglers (1977)/ Budmouth Dears by Thomas Hardy  (first published in The Dynasts, 1908),

Elegies for Emma/Elegies for Tom https://www.arthurkeegan.co.uk/

Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg

Please email Lyn at lynlockwood70@yahoo.co.uk with any questions or comments

PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com 

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

The trees are coming into leaf

Like something almost being said

Joe Riley, teacher and poet of no great renown, is a lifelong lover of Larkin. In this series he attempts to read some of Larkin’s poems in suitable places with his trusty tape recorder. In this episode he explores The Trees from High Windows

Music: In A Mellow Tone by Count Basie

Produced by Lyn Lockwood, Gavin Hogg and Joe Riley

Please email Lyn at ⁠lynlockwood70@yahoo.co.uk⁠ with any questions, comments or suggestions for more readings for the podcast.

PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com 

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page:⁠ ⁠https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Professor Graham Chesters, the new Chair of the Philip Larkin Society, joins us to talk about how came to Hull University, inadvertently following the footsteps of Larkin. Graham also tells us about his relationship with Philip Larkin both as a university colleague and a neighbour in Hull and some of his more disconcerting and memorable encounters with Larkin. Graham talks about his involvement with the Philip Larkin Society and the impact of Covid on the Society. Graham also talks to us about the Larkin poem Absences. A couple of little technology gremlins sneaked in here, so apologies for the occasional dip in sound quality. 

Contemporaries of Larkin mentioned: Garnet Rees (Chair of Modern French Literature at Hull), Vernon Watkins (Welsh poet), Brynmor Jones (Vice Chancellor of Hull University), George Orwell, Dylan Thomas, Seamus Heaney, Eddie Dawes (founding Chairman of the PLS), Maeve Brennan (Larkin’s sub-librarian and lover), Monica Jones (Larkin’s partner), Betty Mackereth (Larkin’s secretary), Carole Collinson (PLS Membership Secretary), James Booth, biographer of Larkin, Life, Art and Love (2014). 

Other texts: Larkin: A Writer’s Life by Andrew Motion (1993), The Sight of Death by TJ Clarke (2006). 

French literature: Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire (1857), Rimbaud, Mallarme, Roland Barthes. 

Larkin poems discussed: As Bad as A Mile, Absences, I Remember, I Remember. 

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.
Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band.
Audio production by Simon Galloway. 

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air
Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/ 

Our guest today is Douglas Bell, Professor of English Language Education at the School of Education, University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China.

Professor Douglas Bell first joined us in April to talk about the 2024 Conference in Hull and kindly stayed on the line to talk to me more widely about Philip Larkin in China. We talk about the reading and translation of Larkin in China, as well as the use of persona and thematic readings of Larkin. We also talk about why Larkin is not a sexist poet, Larkin’s use of rhyme, using Larkin’s poetry to exemplify language teaching, and how Doug found delivering a lecture to many of thousands of Chinese students on Philip Larkin last year. Doug reads Faith Healing and Morning at Last There in the Snow and I read Wires.

Please note there are a few glitches in the sound at the beginning but they do ease off.

13-15th September, Stapleford Granary Larkin Weekend, with jazz music, talks and  a photography display. Some of the events are free, some need to be booked.

https://www.staplefordgranary.org.uk/whats-on/events/larkin-weekend

Writing workshop with former Tiny guest and award winning poet Chris Sewart and podcast host Lyn Lockwood in Hull on Saturday 21st September. We will be based at Artlink on Princes Avenue and taking a gentle stroll around the Avenues and Pearson Park before coming back to the gallery for an afternoon of writing.. There are only 12 places available so if you’re interested you might want to get booking! 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/940211757677?aff=oddtdtcreator

Poems mentioned:

The Whitsun Weddings/Church Going/To The Sea/Love Songs in Age/A Study of Reading Habits/ Faith Healing/MCMXIV/Here/Show Saturday/Heads in The Women’s Room/This Be The Verse/Talking In Bed/ Wild Oats/Dockery and Son/Days/ Morning At Last there in the snow/Wires/Wedding Wind/ Breadfruit/ Poetry of Departures/ Self’s the Man/Aubade 

Warning by Jenny Joseph

Further reading and references:

Bell, D.E. (2023) The Poetry of Philip Larkin. Universal Themes Viewed Through a Peculiarly English Lens. Public lecture for Ningbo library delivered on September 23, 2023. A recording can be accessed at:

https://wx.vzan.com/live/page/2071198589?shauid=YUBtX4II7J_Vc34CAnoK1A**&vprid=0&sharetstamp=1695458198118

John Betjeman interviewing Philip Larkin in a 1964 episode of Monitor, which was a flagship arts programme on British tv during the 1950s and 1960s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Coe11pgoj8E

David Quantick's keynote address at the PLS conference, 'Something more fidgety and various... 50 years of High Windows' at the University of Hull, 14th March 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPQUTk6hUck

The Translation and Criticism of Philip Larkin’s poems in China Wan Furong, Zhang Yan 

https://philiplarkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/AboutLarkin-49.pdf

Letters to Monica by Philip Larkin ed. Anthony Thwaite (Faber, 2011)

Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Thomas Hardy (1892)

Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff ( 1873 –1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor.

Frédéric François Chopin (1810-1849)  was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano.

Music: One Hour by Mound City Blue Blowers

Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg

Please email Lyn at ⁠lynlockwood70@yahoo.co.uk⁠ with any questions or comments

PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com 

Today we are joined by our society President, Rosie Millard. Rosie came to Hull as an undergraduate while Larkin was still librarian at the university and she has maintained close links with Hull ever since. She was made Chair of Hull City of Culture 2017 and appointed OBE in the 2018 New Year Honours List for services in the arts to the city of Hull. Rosie is a writer, broadcaster and arts journalist and is also the chair of BBC Children In Need. In today’s podcast, Rosie and I discuss Solar, Money, Cut Grass and How Distant from High Windows to discuss as part of our preparations for the Philip Larkin Society Conference that is taking place in Hull March 14-15th 2024. Rosie starts us off by reflecting on her first 18 months as our president.

With best wishes to Thomas Gordon and in memory of Andrew Eastwood.

Philip Larkin poems referenced and discussed:

This be The Verse, Annus Mirabilis, Going Going, How Distant, Here, The Whitsun Weddings, High Windows, The Old Fools, Absences, Cut Grass, The Mower, The Trees, Aubade, The Old Fools, The Explosion, At Grass, An Arundel Tomb, Solar, Sad Steps, Money

Out of Reach: The Poetry of Philip Larkin by Andrew Swarbrick (St Martin’s Press, 1997)

Poets In Their Time: Essays on English Poetry from Donne to Larkin by Barbara Everett (Clarendon Paperbacks, 1997)

Experience by Martin Amis (Jonathan Cape, 2000)

‘She’s Leaving Home,’ by The Beatles from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Parlophone, 1967)

Music: Shoe Shine Boy, Just a Mood, Tiger Rag from Larkin’s Jazz Disc 1 (I Remember, I Remember), Petit Fleur (Sidney Bechet) played by Monty Sunshine

PLS Conference 2024 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/philip-larkin-society-conference-2024-tickets-769584597247

‘They may not mean to’ tote bag available here (thank you to Grayson Perry for the idea) and Tiny In All That Air pencils https://philiplarkin.com/shop/

New Eyes Each Year Exhibition 2017

https://philiplarkin.com/new-eyes-each-year/#:~:text=Larkin%3A%20New%20Eyes%20Each%20Year%20invites%20questions%20from%20the%20visitor,seen%20letters%2C%20photographs%20and%20doodles.

https://substack.com/@rosiemillard

The Haworth pub (once frequented by Philip Larkin and writers of Hull’s Bete Noir literary journal edited by Jean Hartley, such as Alan Plater)

https://www.greatukpubs.co.uk/haworth-hull/food-and-drink

Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg

Please email Lyn at lynlockwood70@yahoo.co.uk with any questions or comments

PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com 

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Anne O'Neill and Julian Henry are newer members of the Philip Larkin Society team and many people will have already been feeling the benefit of their fantastic work on the PL Instagram page. Julian is also a trustee and is now supporting the society committee and its planning and events work. Anne is based in County Kerry and Julian in Oxford. We got together to talk about Larkin in the media, Twitter, Instagram, radio and television and Anne and Julian talk about their route into Larkin, their favourite poems, cancel culture, Hull University, Beatrix Potter, Larkin’s legacy and much more.

Wider topics and references: Rachel Cusk, Morrissey, Rap Boy, Desert Island Discs, Dublin, James Joyce, Richard Murfield, Monica Jones, Beatrix Potter, The Smiths, The Beatles A Hard Day Night, Bernadine Evaristo.

Larkin poems discussed: No Road, Dublinesque, Going Going, Broadcast, Church Going, This Be The Verse, At Grass.

Desert Island Discs (BBC) Larkin as guest (17.7.76) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009n0l8

The South Bank Show March (1981) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdeEFErYVtk

All What Jazz (1970)  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/10/back-pages-philip-larkin-jazz-george-melly

Margaret Atwood on poetry: https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2020/nov/07/caught-in-times-current-margaret-atwood-on-grief-poetry-and-the-past-four-years

Nick Cave on cancel culture/censorship: https://www.theredhandfiles.com/do-you-need-to-change-lyrics/

Bibliotherapy

https://ofselfandshelf.com/tag/philip-larkin/

https://theblahpolar.wordpress.com/2016/01/25/bibliotherapy/

Letters Home- James Booth (ed.) https://www.faber.co.uk/9780571335596-philip-larkin-letters-home.html

Anne O’Neill’s articles on Larkin

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/world-sleep-day-can-t-sleep-at-night-have-a-read-1.3428267

Books themselves serve as the ultimate self-help book for reading is a great cure

Presented by Lyn Lockwood. 

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band.  Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz 

Audio production by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

Novelist, playwright and teacher Jonathan Smith has written two plays about Poet Laureate John Betjeman (1906-1984), Mr Betjeman's Class, and Mr Betjeman Regrets that were first broadcast on BBC Radio 4  in 2017. His wonderful new book Being Betjeman(n) has recently been published by Galileo Publishing (https://galileopublishing.co.uk/being-betjemann). We talk about the life of John Betjeman and his wider cultural significance, Betjeman’s many connections to Philip Larkin, and Jonathan’s own very personal relationship with Betjeman and actor Ben Whitrow, who played Betjeman in Jonathan’s plays. Jonathan also reads Devonshire St, W1.

Betjeman poems discussed; The Cottage Hospital, 5 O’Clock Shadow, Death in Leamington, Varsity Student Rag, At Pershore Station, Summoned by Bells.

Larkin poems discussed; The Whitsun Weddings, Toads Revisited, Aubade, The Old Fools, Church Going.

Other stuff; Evelyn Waugh, Andrew Motion, TS Eliot, Ezra Pound, Barry Humphries, Kenneth Williams and the Carry On team, Grayson Perry, the ‘English Eccentric’.

Monitor ‘Down Cemetery Road’ (1964): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Coe11pgoj8E 

Kenneth Williams and Maggie Smith read Death in Leamington (Parkinson, BBC1 1970): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dI8SYa8Szo 

John Betjeman: The Biography  by Bevis Hillier (John Murray, 2007)

Betjeman by AN Wilson (Arrow, 2007)

Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life by Andrew Motion (Faber and Faber, 1993)

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.
Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band.
Audio production by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air
Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

In this episode, PLS trustee and Larkin100 Chair Philip Pullen and PLS trustee and merchandise officer Rachael Galletly join Lyn to reflect back on 2021, look ahead to 2022, read some poetry and talk Larkin.

Larkin poems/novels discussed- Toads, Toads Revisited, The Whitsun Weddings, Show Saturday, High Windows, The Old Fools and Dockery and Son.

Other writers and references: Philip Larkin In New Orleans from Anthony Thwaite’s Selected Poems 1956-1996 (Enitharmon Press, 2002), John Sutherland Monica Jones, Philip Larkin and Me: Her Life and Long Loves (W&N 2021)

Larkin100 partners:

Back To Ours Back to Ours

We Made This (Hull) - https://wemadethishull.wordpress.com/

First Story https://firststory.org.uk/

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Audio editing by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

Phil Pullen (Larkin researcher and chair of Larkin100) and Rachael Galletly (PLS Trustee) join us to discuss Larkin poems that are either about or are directly addressed to specific people in his life; Eva Larkin, Kingsley Amis and Winifred Arnott. We also find out about Larkin’s attitude to summer, his favourite poetic phrase, Kingsley Amis’s wilder moments, what book Rachael nicked from a library, and who made Philip Larkin ‘yowl’. 

Mother, Summer, I, Heads on the Women’s Ward, Reference Back, Hospital Visits, Love Songs in Age, Letter to a Friend About Girls, The Old Fools, Livings, Lines on a Young Ladies Photograph Album, Deceptions, Born Yesterday, Wild Oats, A Study in Reading Habits, Home is So Sad, The Mower, Maiden Name, Afternoons, Show Saturday, An Arundel Tomb, Broadcast, Poem about Oxford, Talking in Bed. 

Letters Home (ed. James Booth, Faber and Faber, 2018) 

Inside Story by Martin Amis (Jonathan Cape, 2020) 

The Letters of Kingsley Amis (ed. Zachary Leader, HarperCollins 2000) 

The Complete Poems of Philip Larkin (ed. Archie Burnett, Faber and Faber 2012) 

The Poet’s Plight by James Booth (Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2005) 

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Presented by Lyn Lockwood. 

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz 

Audio production by Simon Galloway. 

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air 

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/ 

This talk was given to the Philip Larkin Society in 2010 by Emeritus Reader of American History at the University of Hull, John White. John White is the PLS jazz consultant and along with Trevor Tolley, compiled the wonderful ‘Larkin’s Jazz’ 4 disc CD released on Proper Records. This was part of the Larkin25 commemorative events. The talk is a warm and witty exploration of Larkin’s -sometimes extremely dry- sense of humour taking in camels, Jack Nicholson, raccoon coats and wine that tastes ‘like cricket bats.’

Content warning- liberal use of swearing…

References:

Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life by Andrew Motion (Faber 1993)

Pretending to Be Me- Tom Courtney (Hachette Audio Book 2003)

The Philip Larkin I Knew- Maeve Brennan  (Manchester University Press, 2002)

Selected Letters of Philip Larkin 1940-1985 (ed. Anthony Thwaite, Faber 1992)

Philip Larkin: A Bibliography, 1933-1994- B Bloomfield

All What Jazz: A Record Diary 1961 - 1971 (Faber) Philip Larkin

Poems referenced:

Church Going, Wild Oats, This Be The Verse, Vers de Societe, 

Self’s The Man read by Philip Larkin can be heard at the end of the talk.

Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg

PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com 

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

This episode was researched and planned by PLS Trustees Julian Henry and Dr Chris Fletcher, Keeper of Special Collections at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Philip Larkin was a librarian for 42 years. He had no formal training when he set off; he chose the career on the spur of the moment as a 21 year old after leaving university, like many students, without a career in mind. However, he came to be one of the UK's most influential and ground-breaking librarians of the post-war years, and his influence is still felt today. In this episode we examine Larkin's life as a librarian and how in interwove with his writing, friendships and relationships.

Larkin poems discussed:

An Arundel Tomb

The Card Players

Long Lion Days

Lines on a Young Lady's Photograph Album

Wedding Wind

The Mower

At Grass

Toads/ Toads Revisited

Other references:

My Particular Talents by Richard Goodman, About Larkin, 4  October 1997. Huddled Tea Breaks in the Cupboard by Pamela Hanley, About Larkin, 4  October 1997. https://philiplarkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/About-Larkin-04.pdf

Agony in the Garden The Independent on Sunday, Dr Christopher Fletcher, 31/10/2004

A Neglected Responsibility by Philip Larkin from Required Writing: Miscellaneous Pieces 1955-1982 (Faber, 1986)

Letters to Monica by Philip Larkin ed. Anthony Thwaite (Faber, 2010)

Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life by Andrew Motion (Faber, 1993)

Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg

PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com 

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

In this episode, Lyn talks to Dr James Underwood, Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Huddersfield and Deputy Director of the Ted Hughes Network. James's book  Early Larkin (2021) reveals so many aspects of Larkin's less well known writing and charts Larkin's growth into the towering poet he eventually became. We look at poems, letters and prose, and how Larkin shaped his world through his writing.

Larkin poems referred to- -Livings, Dockery and Son, The Whitsun Weddings, Afternoons, The Mower, Dublinesque, The Winter Palace, I See A Girl Dragged By The Wrists, Femmes Damnes, A School in August.

Other writers and references: Maeve Brennan The Philip Larkin I Knew (2002), James Booth Philip Larkin, Life, Art and Love (2014),Selected Letters of Philip Larkin 1940-1985 (1992 ed. Anthony Thwaite), Trouble at Willow Gables and Other Fictions by Philip Larkin (2002 ed. James Booth), W. B. Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium” from The Poems of W. B. Yeats: A New Edition.

Nick Cave The Red Hand Files, The Vampires Wife blog Our favourite Larkin poem.

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Audio editing by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

Our guest on this episode is David Quantick - journalist, essayist, writer of television shows Veep and The Thick Of It, horror novel All My Colours (2019, Titan Books), soon-to-be released novel Night Train (2020, Titan Books) and much, much more!

A few months ago, David Quantick 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.

More Larkin stuff discussed: Jill, A Girl in Winter, The Whitsun Weddings, Afternoons, An Arundel

Tomb, Mr Bleaney, A School in August, Aubade.

Other writers, books and shows: George Orwell Boys Weeklies (1940) (Available here: https://orwell.ru/library/essays/boys/english/e_boys ), Harry Potter, Mallory Towers, the James Bond books of Ian Fleming and Martin Amis, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Frank Richards, Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife, Orange is the New Black.

Trouble at Willow Gables and Other Fictions ed. By James Booth (2002) Faber and Faber.

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.
Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band.
Audio production by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air
Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

In this episode, Lyn talks to Deb Fisher, Chair of the Barbara Pym Society and writer and actor Triona Adams, also a member of the Barbara Pym Society.  We discuss how it was Larkin who initiated the friendship between the two writers in 1961 when he wrote a letter to Pym admiring her novels.  Both Oxford graduates, and resolutely unmarried, they communicated by letter for 14 years until they finally met in person at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford.  In 1977, the Times Literary Supplement printed an article where contributors named who they considered the most underrated writers of the previous seventy-five years. Pym was the only living writer to appear on the list twice, chosen by  Lord David Cecil and Philip Larkin. Larkin praised her “unique eye and ear for the small poignancies and comedies of everyday life.” Their friendship, although mainly on paper, was remarkably kind and supportive, underpinned by their love of tradition, domesticity and of each others’ work. We talk about the qualities of Pym's writing, her life and loves, and her lasting legacy, with loyal readers and researchers all around the world today.

References:

The novels of Barbara Pym from Crampton Hodnet (written 1940)  to A Few Green Leaves (1980), BBC R4 Women’s Hour, Andrew Motion A Writer’s Life (1994), Paula Byrne The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym (2021), Hazel Holt  A Lot to Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym  (1990), Barbara Pym A Very Private Eye: An Autobiography in Diaries and Letters (1984)

Oliver Ford Davies as Philip Larkin Theatre review: Larkin with Women at Orange Tree, Richmond

Theatre review: Larkin with Women at Orange Tree, Richmond

Larkin poems referred to: Church Going, Ambulances

The Barbara Pym Society https://barbara-pym.org/

2022 Spring Meeting; 30 April 2022: University Women's Club, Mayfair, London 'We Used To Correspond 'The Pym-Larkin letters, featuring Triona Adams and Ben Willbond (Horrible Histories/Ghosts) – please see the website for full details.

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Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Audio editing by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

Cut grass lies frail...

Joe Riley, teacher and poet of no great renown, is a lifelong lover of Larkin. In this series he attempts to read some of Larkin's poems in suitable places with his trusty tape recorder. In this episode, Joe ventures out on his school field to read and discuss Cut Grass from High Windows.

Music: Sidney Bechet - Si tu vous ma mere (Lonesome)

Produced by Lyn Lockwood, Gavin Hogg and Joe Riley

Please email Lyn at lynlockwood70@yahoo.co.uk with any questions, comments or suggestions.

PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com

Theme music: The Horns of the Morning by the Mechanicals from their album The Righteous Jazz

My guest today is Rishi Dastidar who is a poet and editor based in London. Rishi discusses his own particular view of Larkin’s portrayal of Englishness in both his letters and his poetry, Larkin’s contemporaries such as TS Eliot and Alan Bennett, and the vibrant role poetry plays in the UK’s cultural landscape. 

Rishi Dastidar’s poetry has been published by the Financial Times, The Guardian and BBC and more. He is a fellow of The Complete Works, and a consulting editor at The Rialto magazine. A poem from his debut collection Ticker-tape was included in The Forward Book of Poetry 2018, and his second collection, Saffron Jack, was published in the UK by Nine Arches Press in 2020. He is also editor of The Craft: A Guide to Making Poetry Happen in the 21st Century (Nine Arches Press), and co-editor of Too Young, Too Loud, Too Different: Poems from Malika’s Poetry Kitchen (Corsair). He is the chair of the board of trustees for Wasafari Magazine.

Larkin poems discussed:

Poetry of Departures, Friday Night In the Royal Station Hotel, Afternoons, The Building, The Whitsun Weddings, Toads, Waiting for Breakfast

Other references:

Kingsley Amis, Alan Bennett, Ezra Pound

The Poetry Review, The New Yorker, 

The Delinquent https://delinquentmagazine.bigcartel.com/, 

Smiths Knoll magazine (https://poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/index190a.html?id=17), 

The Faber Academy https://faberacademy.com/

The Love Song of J Alfred Prufock by TS Eliot (1915)

Wild God by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (2024 PIAS Recordings)

Sometimes a Wild God by Tom Hirons https://tomhirons.com/poetry/sometimes-a-wild-god (2017)

Neptune's Projects  by Rishi Dastidur (2023)

 https://ninearchespress.com/publications/poetry-collections/neptune-s-projects

Time by Pink Floyd ‘hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way’ from The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

George Best, footballer https://nostalgiacentral.com/pop-culture/people/george-best/

UK films/radio of the 1950s/60s:Passport to Pimlico, Whiskey Galore, The Goons, Kind Hearts and Coronets

Music:

Lazy River by Sidney Bechet

Time by Pink Floyd

Theme music:

The Horns of the Morning by Wes Finch and the Mechanicals Band

https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg

Please email Lyn at ⁠plsdeputychair@gmail.com ⁠ with any questions or comments

PLS Membership, events, merchandise and information: philiplarkin.com

Writer Ann Thwaite has a long involvement with the society and with Philip Larkin himself. Ann married Anthony Thwaite when they were both young Oxford graduates. Anthony Thwaite brought Larkin’s poems to the BCC and many publications in his work as an editor. Anthony was Larkin’s executor alongside Andrew Motion, and went on to edit Larkin’s letters and poems. Anthony was the founding President of the Philip Larkin Society until he passed away in 2021 at the age of 90. Ann continues to be an active supporter of the society as one of our honorary vice presidents.

A new collection of Anthony’s poems is shortly to be published by Baylor University Press entitled At The Garden’s Dark Edge.

Kevin Gardner https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2024/12-april/features/interviews/interview-kevin-gardner-lecturer-anthologist

https://academic.oup.com/litthe/article-abstract/23/1/51/938106

Brotherton Library, University of Leeds

https://leedsunilibrary.wordpress.com/2021/04/28/anthony-thwaite-1932-2021/

Ann reads poems by Anthony Thwaite:

Sigma, Silence, Philip Larkin in New Orleans

Philip Larkin poem read by Ann:

The View- ‘Larkin sent the poem with a letter to Ann Thwaite dated 9 Feb 1980. The birthday was on 23 June 1980.’ (Burnett, p. 660)

Six Centuries of Verse written by Anthony Thwaite http://bufvc.ac.uk/shakespeare/index.php/title/19671

Broadcast on ITV in 1984 and compiled by writer and poet Anthony Thwaite, Six Centuries of Verse was the first television series to provide a systematic and chronological overview of the art.

The Japan Foundation https://www.jpf.org.uk/

The New Statesman https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/larkin-at-100/2022/07/ann-thwaite-philip-larkin-centenary

British Library audio archives https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/a/A13531725

Enitharmon Books (Anthony’s UK publishers) https://www.enitharmon.co.uk/product/a-move-in-the-weather-anthony-thwaite/

Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love by James Booth  (Bloomsbury, 2015)

Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life by Andrew Motion (Faber, 1994)

The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse ed. Philip Larkin (Oxford University Press, 1973)

Philip Larkin Collected Poems ed. Anthony Thwaite (Faber, 1988)

Philip Larkin Selected Letters ed. Anthony Thwaite (Faber and Faber, 1993)

Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica ed. Anthony Thwaite (Faber and Faber, 2011)

Colin Dextor’s references to Larkin in Inspector Morse https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2016/jan/26/severed-limbs-intertextuality-guide-endeavour-hidden-secrets

Grayson Perry in Hull (2017) https://philiplarkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/About-Larkin-44.pdf

Unveiling the Plaque at Kings Cross (2014)

https://philiplarkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/About-Larkin-38.pdf

Elizabeth Jennings https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/collected-poems-elizabeth-jennings-elizabeth-jennings

Larkin at Sixty ed. Anthony Thwaite (Faber, 1982)

Larkin at Sixty (review) https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v04/n20/barbara-everett/larkin-and-us

Poems for Anthony Thwaite, a manuscript volume of signed holograph poems collected from notable poets https://archives.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repositories/2/resources/12550

A A Milne: His Life by Ann Thwaite (Faber, 1991)

Please see the PLS X account @PLSoc for pictures of the interview with Ann Thwaite

Music clips:

Spain by Bob Crosby and the Bob Cats

The Blues Jumped a Rabbit by Jimmy Noone

Reckless Blues by Bessie Smith

Petit Fleur by Sidney Bechet, played Monty Sunshine

Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg

Please email Lyn at ⁠lynlockwood70@yahoo.co.uk⁠ with any questions or comments

PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com 

Emily Tennyson: The Poet's Wife by Ann Thwaite (Faber, 1997)Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: ⁠https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

The Philip Larkin Society has a formal structure which helps us to run effectively. This has allowed us to appoint a President (Anthony Thwaite 1930-2021) and a number of honorary vice-presidents. HVPs support the charity both publicly and behind the scenes and generously lend their name to our work. Recently we have been able to appoint some new HVPs, three of whom we speak to in this episode. Rosie Millard, journalist and University of hull Alumnus, sculptor Martin Jennings and writer David Quantick. They all reflect on their love of Larkin and their thoughts about the PLS. We also have a reading of The Whitsun Weddings by another new HVP, writer Ann Thwaite, OBE.

Philip Larkin Collected Poems, edited by Anthony Thwaite, 1988 Faber

Hull: City of Culture | British Council

https://martinjennings.com/

https://davidquantick.com/

David Quantick reads MCMXLXIX from About Larkin No. 50 (October 2020)

Ann Thwaite | Authors | Faber & Faber

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Audio editing by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

This is the King Henry VIII School, Coventry takeover! Led by the school's Librarian and Archivist Helen Cooper, and introduced by former Head of English Sheila Woolf, the pupils of Larkin's former school in Coventry have recorded a fascinating short fictional play written by Fred Holland that explores the Larkin family during Word War II. Helen Cooper and Phil Pullen (Chair of Larkin100 and Larkin researcher) join Lyn to discuss the writing and performance of the play, as well as exploring the play's many themes- family life, gender identity, jazz music, the destruction of Coventry, the rise of fascism and pre-war Germany. The performance also includes full readings of three very relevant Larkin poems.

Also profound thanks to Dan Balcam, the School’s Performing Arts Technician who recorded the performance and added the sound effects, and Sheila Woolf for her help with the adaptation of the play and her introduction explaining its history. Most of all, however, thank you very much indeed to the cast of Year 12 and Year 13 pupils who found time in their busy schedules to perform the play:

Clemi Andrews: Eva Larkin

Leong Yi Au: Narrator #2

Ben Cartwright: Philip Larkin

Simran Cheema: Narrator #1

Aston McKeown: Captain Stanley Hector, Chief Constable of Coventry

Ocean: Sydney Larkin, Coventry City Treasurer

Adam Price: Roger Smythe

Poems: Ultimatum, This Be the Verse, Snow In April, For Sidney Bechet

Other texts and references:

Sir Oswald Mosley, Sir Barry Domvile, Diana Mitford, Peaky Blinders (2013-2022 BBC), James Booth Life, Art and Love (2014, Bloomsbury), Trouble at Willow Gables and Other Fictions (Faber & Faber 2015),  Andrew Motion Philip Larkin A Writer's Life (Faber 1993)

Selected letters of Philip Larkin (1993, Faber & Faber)  Barbara Pym Some Tame Gazelle (1950, Virago Modern Classics), Julia Boyd Travellers in the Third Reich  (2018,Elliott & Thompson Limited)

John Kenyon's article about Philip Larkin can be read here

https://philiplarkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/larkin_at_hull_jkenyon.pdf

This podcast is one of the many Centenary events that celebrate 100 years since the birth of Philip Larkin, run by the Philip Larkin Society and Larkin 100.

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Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Audio editing by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air

Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

They might not meant to, but they do...

Joe Riley, teacher and poet of no great renown, is a lifelong lover of Larkin. In this series he attempts to read some of Larkin's poems in suitable places with his trusty tape recorder. In this final episode of the summer, Joe heads out with his daughter and reads This Be The Verse.

Please note this episode contains strong language.

Music: Feeling Drowsy by Henry Allen Junior and his Orchestra (1929)

Produced by Lyn Lockwood, Gavin Hogg and Joe Riley

Please email Lyn at lynlockwood70@yahoo.co.uk with any questions, comments or suggestions.

PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com

Theme music: The Horns of the Morning by the Mechanicals from their album The Righteous Jazz

Join Lyn Lockwood and Chris Sewart in Hull on 21st September for a Larkin inspired writing workshop

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/some-dappled-park-a-poetry-writing-workshop-inspired-by-philip-larkins-hull-tickets-940211757677?aff=oddtdtcreator

In the second part of our conversation with Kieron Winn, we discuss Faith Healing and ‘coinage’ of all different kinds in Larkin, This Be The Verse, Broadcast, Tom Stoppard and Ian McEwan’s comments on Larkin, Herbert Read’s essay ‘What is a Poem?’, the glacial speed of poetry writing, Wordsworth, Hardy, TS Eliot, and the poetry of grief. Kieron also reads two more poems from The Mortal Man; The Duplicator and Cornwall.

More information about Kieron can be found at kieronwinn.com.

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.  
Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band.  
Audio production by Simon Galloway.

Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air
Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/