Tiny In All That Air

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,...

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...

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 wi...

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 epi...

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...

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 Sid...

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 B...

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 Windo...

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...

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...

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...

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 b...

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 g...

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&nbs...

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 invi...

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 G...

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 see...