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Waterstones
in Hull are extremely supportive of Hull & East Riding writers, and carry a stock of many of the books mentioned
on this site.
 Philip Larkin was born in Coventry (in 1922), but he is probably most associated with Hull where he was the Librarian (and later Professor) at Hull University from 1955 to his death in 1985. He is regarded as one of Britain's greatest 20th century poets. The Philip Larkin Society holds regular events in Hull, and a full list of activities and background materials are available on their website.
"Collected Poems"
"...Tritely characterised as a misanthrope and a curmudgeon the poems of his cannon are full of intense beauty and moments of potently alluring melancholy wholly at odds with the image. It is often claimed that Larkin wrote only 4 great poems - Here, Dockery and Son, Aubade, The Witsun Weddings - This collection underlines the absurdity of this view - In poems like Church Going, Arundel Tomb and Show Saturday we find a poet who resolves the seemingly mundane into conclusion whose optimism and joy are all the more intense for being reasoned to rather than asserted. His deeply British sense of identity and location are also expressed in wonderfully comic and self-deprecating pieces such as 'I remember I remember', 'vers de societe'. Finally on death and ageing he expresses everyman's fear with a clarity that is truly chilling in its finality."
"Required Writing"
"Now republished by Faber & Faber (no doubt as a result of the tremendous popularity of the late great poet, as well as Mr Thwaite's excellent companion selection "Further Requirements"), this collective was infact Larkin's own selection from the mounds of his writings. Many found here were originally introductions to works published, interviews given, and essays undertaken - all in great demand in 1982 and now! "Required Writing" contains the excellent introduction to "Jill" - Larkin's first attempt at a novel - what is excellent is the insight to life in Oxford during the second world war. Other worthy items include a superior analysis of the 'real' Wilfred Owen - war poet of the Great War (who died in action just days before the end of the 1914-18 conflict); Larkin's early years as a Librarian; and titbits on Betjeman and other contempories. "Required Writing" as with the recent Thwaite collective, also lays to rest questions of Larkin's interpersonal karmas; views of establishments; and outlines his reluctance to conform to a changing world, preferring a reclusive style of profession and social existance so apt for a writer during the period. I recommend this book without reservation."
"Further Requirements"
gathers together the many interviews, broadcasts, statements and reviews that were omitted from Required Writing. Taken altogether
this collection fills in a consistent but sometimes unexpected portrait of Philip Larkin - mordant, intolerant, generous,
but always himself. It will give great pleasure to all admirers of his work.
"All What Jazz: A Record Diary"
This is a classic, which should be on the shelves of anyone wanting to understand more, not only about jazz, but also how attitudes have changed since that joyful music first burst on the scene. The bulk of the book is made up of the articles Larkin wrote reviewing new jazz releases, many of which were of recordings made before the war and newly available on vinyl.
"Selected Letters of Philip Larkin,
1940-1985"
These letters throw light on a more complex figure than most readers will probably be expecting. Whether addressing his literary friends, who included Barbara Pym, Kingsley Amis and John Betjeman, or those less prominently placed, Larkin shows himself to be a frank and generous letter-writer. Confessions, jokes, advice, scurrilities, pronouncements on literature and jazz, impromptu verses, published here for the first time, gossip and wisdom abound in these pages. They offer a view of a poet's progress from brash youth to rueful age, and in complementing the poems, provide a biographical document for the serious reader.
"Jill"
"Although written when he was only 21, this book is a good precursor to the poetry that Larkin is famous for. Beautifully written, sharp, crisp,strangely evocative of a far bygone era. John Kemp, from a middle-class background, is a new student in the world of Oxford where he meets people different and more well off than himself. Struggling to fit in, he invents a school-girl sister named Jill...who becomes more than a figment of his imagination when he encounters Gillian. Lovely read. Highly recommended."
"A Girl in Winter"
"The first thing to say about this novel is the perfected beauty of its descriptions. Larkin himself viewed the novels as long poems of a sort, and these chapters of elegant prose back up that claim. Moreover, with so small an output, the book represents something of a booty to people searching for more of Larkin's effortless writing. Several chapters, made up of a page or so of scene-setting, evoke mediations like 'A slight relax of air' and others. Likewise during the more lengthy chapters there are always a store of lengthy descriptions that evoke place with an assured balance between objective and subjective perception. Remembering that Larkin was still in his early twenties at the time of writing, the stately opening of the novel, detailing a winter landscape, points beyond 'The North Ship' towards his mature poetry."
"A Writer's Life"
"This is the best biography I have ever read. As a greatly distinguished poet himself (accepting the Laureateship, whilst Larkin turned it down 25 years earlier), Motion understands the centrality of poetry to Larkin's life, and this is reflected in the book. Larkin's poetry was a continual reflection of his interior states, and so with great empathy and scrupulous research Motion brings these to light. He is unflinching about Larkin's worse aspects and does not absolve Larkin of his racism, sexism and political vituperativeness but explains the impulses from which they sprang. Motion also writes clearly and with no little finesse. A wonderful book."
"Such Deliberate Disguises: The
Art of Philip Larkin"
"Jazz Writings" made Larkin's jazz criticism widely available - Palmer now offers the first extensive revaluation of Larkin's writing on jazz as well as covering his poetry and early work."Such Deliberate Disguises: The Art of Philip Larkin" argues that a true understanding of Philip Larkin as man and poet lies beyond his enduring public appeal and the variety of criticism that has recently been applied to his work.Richard Palmer suggests that the ostensible simplicity of Larkin's writing, which continues to attract so many readers to him, is deceptive, masking as it does one of the richest and most resonant of oeuvres in twentieth-century poetry. Penetrating the many masks of Larkin, the book sheds new and considerable light on the hitherto largely ignored spiritual significance of his work.
"Pretending to be me" is
an intimate, acerbic and occasionally scurrilous show about the poet, jazz aficionado and Hull University librarian, Philip
Larkin. Larkin ('the magnificent Eeyore of British verse' - Daily Telegraph) has moved home; surrounded by packing
cases, playing selections from his favourite jazz LPs, and making himself cups of tea - and later whiskies - he reflects wryly
on writing and life. Hilarious and moving, the narrative shifts seamlessly between Larkin's outrageous wit and the poems,
which Courtenay reads with powerful directness and simplicity. PHILIP LARKIN, one of the foremost figures in 20th-Century
English poetry, feared his epitaph would be: 'They fuck you up, your mum and dad'. This, and other familiar poems,
'An Arundel Tomb', 'The Whitsun Weddings' and 'High Windows' are included in PRETENDING TO BE ME.
"Trouble At Willow Gables and Other
Fiction - 1943-1953"
The
book opens with works written under the pseudonym 'Brunette Coleman', including the two novellas, Trouble at Willow
Gables and Michaelmas Term at St Bride's, and the poem sequence Sugar and Spice. The remainder of the volume is devoted
to the unfinished drafts of two novels, No For An Answer and A New World Symphony, on which Larkin worked after the completion
of A Girl in Winter. It ends with two short debats of 1950 and 1951, which pungently dramatise his sense of failure as a novelist
and his rejection of marriage. |
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