Andrew Motion - Philip Larkin: A Writers Life

Monica Jones, who was Philip Larkins confidante and companion for nearly forty years, has helped me more than anyone else while I have been writing this book. She has been unfailingly generous, candid and hospitable. I am deeply in her debt, and so is everyone who cares about Larkins writing.

Sir Kingsley Amis, Maeve Brennan, Winifred Dawson (ne Arnott), Judy Egerton, Betty Mackereth, Charles Monteith, Ruth Siverns (ne Bowman), Jim Sutton, and (with Monica Jones) my co-literary executor of the Larkin Estate, Anthony Thwaite, have also been exceptionally helpful. They have given many hours of their time, endured my interrogations, patiently reconstructed the past, and granted me permission to quote material in their possession. I am very grateful to them all.

My friends Alan Hollinghurst, Robert McCrum, Blake Morrison, Christopher Reid who is also my editor and Marion Shaw read the book in its penultimate draft, and made many valuable suggestions. Marion Shaw deserves a special word of thanks. On my many visits to Hull over the past several years she has listened to me, fed me and lent me her guest room. I owe her a great deal.

I owe even more to my wife, Jan Dalley. She has always asked the right questions, and her insights have always deepened my understanding. Without her, this book would have been much less than it is.

Larkin liked to give the impression that he lived an invariably quiet life, but while he had a small number of close friends he had a very large number of acquaintances and professional colleagues. An even larger number of people some of whom only knew the work, not the man have also been drawn into the orbit of this book. They have all been extremely encouraging and forthcoming sharing their memories of Larkin, their thoughts about him, and letting me read their letters from him. For their kindness, conversation, advice, practical help and permission to quote I am pleased to acknowledge:

Simon Adams, Martin Amis, Peter Antrobus.

Phil Bacon, Christopher Baker, Jill Balcon, Donald Bancroft, Jonathan Barker, Julian Barnes, Max Barnett, Joan Barton, Molly Bateman, Ida Beck, J. C. Beckett, Margaret Bell, Sir Isaiah Berlin, the estate of Sir John Betjeman, the estate of Elizabeth Bishop, Stella Bishop, Bronwen Biswas, Robin Biswas, Caroline Blackwood, B. C. Bloomfield, James Booth, Michael Bowen, Alan Bower, Father Francis Bown, Harrison Boyle, Eric Bracewell, Malcolm Bradbury, Dennis Bradley, Melvyn Bragg, E. B. Bramwell, Ray Brett, Frieda Brown, Philip Brown, Sir Mervyn Brown, Ivory Buchan, Bohdan Buciak, Campbell Burnap.

Donald Campbell, Raymond Cass, Roy Castle, Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, Harry Chambers, John Chapple, Maurice B. Cloud, George Cole, Philip Collins, Robert Conquest, R. J. Cooper, John Cotton, C. B. Cox, Tom Cusack.

Alec Dalgarno, Barbara Dalgamo, Timothy dArch Smith, the late Dan Davin, Eddie Dawes, the estate of C. Day-Lewis, Peter Dickinson, Edward du Cann, Peter du Sautoy, Janet Duffin, Douglas Dunn.

Robert Eborall, Margaret Elliot, D. J. Enright, Babette Evans, Matthew Evans, Barbara Everett, Jane Exall.

Jane Feaver, David Fielding, Jack Flint, Tony Flynn, Alan Fowlie, Ian Frazer, John Frazer, Paddy Frazer, John Fuller.

Patrick Garland, David Gerard, Dennis Gibbs, Robert Giroux, John Gloster, Rosemary Goad, Fay Godwin, Martin Goff, Livia Gollancz, Daisy Goodwin, Tom Graham, M. Grant Cormack, Arthur Green, Richard Griffiths, Miriam Gross, Lizzie Grossman.

John Hall, Kathleen Hall, Michael Hamburger, Ian Hamilton, Pamela Hanley, Elsie Harris, George Hartley, Jean Hartley, R. Haynes, Rev. P. N. Hayward, Seamus Heaney, Mark Hearne, John Heath-Stubbs, Anthony Hedges, Catherine Hewitt, S. Hewitt, Frances Hill, Martin Hill, Bevis Hillier, Peter Hoare, Harry Hoff, Hazel Holt, Geoff Hook, Noel Hughes, Ted Hughes, Arthur Humphries.

Norman Iles.

Robert Jackson, Anne James, K. H. Jeffrey, the late Sir Brynmor Jones, Mary Judd.

Pat Kavanagh, Mary Kelly, R. C. Kennedy, John Kenyon, Dick Kidner, Lady Hilary Kilmarnock, the late Terence Kilmartin, L. W. Kilroe, Ann Kind, L. W. Kingsland.

Sonia Lane, Ethel Leake, Peter Levi, Frank Liddiard, Solly Lipshitz, Edna Longley, Michael Longley, Graham Lord, the estate of Robert Lowell.

Basil McIvor, Jill McIvor, Lachlan Mackinnon, Henry Mackle, Charles Madge, Elizabeth Madill, Bill Manhire, Alison Mansbridge, Alan Marshall, George Martin, Tom Maschler, Frank Mattison, Oscar Mellor, Michael Meyer, A. L. Miller, Karl Miller, Donald Mitchell, Brenda Moon, Michael Moorey, Joanna Motion, Ian Mowat, Jamie Muir, Richard Murphy.

The late J. Norton Smith.

Philip Oakes, V. W. Oates, Humphrey Ocean, Martyn Offord, Charles Osborne.

Graham Parkes, Rosemary Parry, Tom Paulin, Virginia Peace, Robert Philips, Jimmy Piggott, Harold Pinter, Alan Plater, Graham Poots, Ted Poots, Henri Poulet, Anthony Powell, Neil Powell, S. L. Powsey, Judith Priestman.

Jonathan Raban, F. W. Ratcliffe, Dilys Rees, the late Garnet Rees, Wilf Richardson, Sheila Richter, Christopher Ricks, John Riggott, Layton Ring, Ernest Roe, Alan Ross, Janice Rossen, Sheila Rossiter, A. L. Rowse, Don Roy, Hilary Rubenstein, W. G. Runciman, Nick Russel, Bill Ryder.

Dale Salwak, John Saville, Penelope Scott Stokes, Garry Sergeant, John Shakespeare, Sebastian Shakespeare, Michael Sharp, the late Roger Sharrock, Fiona Shaw, Peter Sheldon, H. J. Shepheard, Brian Shepley, Michael Shere, M. Shirley, J. B. Simmons, Jack Simmons, Frank Smith, Andrew Snell, the late John Sparrow, Sir Stephen Spender, D. J. Spooner, Nora Stooke, Colin Strang, Joan Sutcliffe, Leslie Sykes, Julian Symons.

Daphne Tagg, Ted Tarling, Brian Tate, Arthur Tattersall, Anne Taylor, Brian Taylor, Patrick Taylor-Martin, Arthur Terry, James Thompson, Ann Thwaite, David Timms, Pamela Todd, James Toll, A. J. Tolley, Charles Townsend.

James Vitty, Steve Voce.

John Wain, Geoffrey Walker, Philip Walker, Bob Wallis, Bill Warley, Gwen Watkins, Barbara Watson, David Watson, J. R. Watson, Rob Watt, Peter Way, John Wells, Geoff Weston, W. G. Wheeler, John White, David Whittle, John Widowson, Jimmy Wilcox, A. N. Wilson, Bruce Woodcock.

Nicholas Zurbrugge.

I am also grateful to the following companies, institutions and organizations: the Librarian and staff of the Queens University Library, Belfast; the staff of the Modern Manuscript and John Johnson Reading Room, the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the staff of the Department of Manuscripts, the British Library; Faber and Faber, for permission to quote from material in their archive; the Librarian and staff of the Brynmor Jones Library, the University of Hull, for permission to quote from material held in their Philip Larkin Archive (I am especially grateful to the Archivist, Brian Dyson, and to Larkins successor as Librarian, Ian Mowat); the College Secretary and the Archivist, Malcolm Vale, at St Johns College, Oxford; the Headmaster and staff of King Henry VIII School, Coventry especially Geoff Vent; the Librarian and staff at the University of Leicester Library; Sidney F. Huttner, the Curator of the Special Collections at McFarlin Library, the University of Tulsa, for permission to quote from letters from Larkin to Patsy Strang and Richard Murphy and the Librarian at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, for permission to quote from material held in their Elizabeth Bishop archive.

I am very happy to thank the Leverhulme Foundation, which generously awarded me a Fellowship in 199091.

Copyright in Philip Larkins poems, letters and unpublished writing is owned by the Trustees of the Estate of Philip Larkin. I am grateful for permission to quote from this material, and would especially like to thank T. N. Wheldon, Tim Wheldon and Richard Kempner for their opinions, advice and support.