Philip Larkin - Context

Education

Larkin attended Coventry Boy’s Grammar School, and then went on to study at St. John’s College Oxford.

Childhood

Larkin described his childhood as being uneventful.

H described his childhood home as being ‘a very gloomy house, an unhappy place’.

He grew up in Coventry, however after going to university, he did not return due to his lack of sense of belonging and the fact that he had no sentimental value attached to Coventry.

He grew up in a council house.

Religion

Larkin was agnostic.

He believed that there was some value in religious ideas, but may have not become a Christian due to his father telling him to not believe in God.

Father

His father was Sydney Larkin, who was the Coventry city treasurer. He was friends with the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Larkin's father was a closet Nazi. He decorated his work office with Nazi memorabilia right up to 1939.

His father was nihilistic, a trait that Larkin inherited.

Mother

His mother was Eva Emily Larkin, the daughter of William James Day, who was a first-class excise officer.

She was described as being submissive, contrasting her husband who had a domineering personality.

Ruth Bowman

1945 - He began a relationship with Ruth Bowman who was his first love and lover. He proposed to her in 1948, six weeks after his fathers death. They broke up in 1950.

Winifred Arnott

She was a woman who Larkin worked with in the same university library (Queen’s University, Belfast). They were in a relationship and she influenced many of his poems, like ‘Lines on a Young Lady’s Photograph Album’ and ‘Maiden Name’. She married in 1954 to another man.

Monica Jones

1946 - During some stage to the end of his engagement with Ruth, Larkin had a friendship with Monica Jones that turned sexual.

Betty Mackereth

1975 - Betty was a married woman who also worked in the Hull University Library. She had an affair with Larkin.

Patsy Strang.

1950s -- Patsy was married to Larkin’s co-worker and friend, Colin Strang, and they had an open relationship. At one point, she was willing to leave Colin for Larkin. She also became pregnant by Larkin, however she miscarried.

Hull

Larkin worked as a librarian in the University of Hull.

He was nicknamed ‘the Hermit of Hull’.

Misogyny

Larkin displayed many misogynistic views, shown particularly by If, My Darling and Latest Face. These views may have been influenced by the fact that he grew up in majority all male environments.

Philip Larkin Quotes

• ‘the only married state I know is bloody hell’.
• ‘as far as [he] can see, all women are stupid beings’.
• He described his poetry as being ‘sad-eyed realism’.
• His father was considered to be ‘nihilistically disillusioned in middle age’.
• His father told him to ‘never believe in God’.
• He described the bible as ‘Beautiful but absolute balls’.
• ‘I can live a week without poetry, but not a day without jazz’.
• He described his poetry as being a ‘kind of welfare sub-state poetry’.