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

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

 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

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

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

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