Tiny In All That Air

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 mainl...

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 Pl...

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 podca...

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 fello...

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 Lark...

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: A Rumoured City: New Poets f...

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...

Dr Sam Perry teaches English Literature at the University of Hull, where he is a member of the Philip Larkin Centre for Poetry & 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 discusse...

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...

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 Larki...

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 3...

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 y...

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, Abse...

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 Larki...

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...

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 b...

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...

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...

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. Ro...

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...

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 fasci...

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 h...

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 librar...

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, Essentia...

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, Twi...