Philip Larkin Read online

  April–October 1956 Moves to 192A Hallgate, Cottingham.

  July–August 1956 Philip and Monica holiday together on Skye. Then Philip spends a week (11–18 August) with Eva in Stratford, after which she goes to stay with Nellie in Hyde.

  24 September 1956 Mary Wrench appointed as a library assistant at the University of Hull.

  1 October 1956 Eva is initiated by Dr Folwell into the ‘Circle of Silent Ministry’ with whose members she remains in touch until her final years.

  27 October 1956 Larkin moves into a high-windowed flat at the top of 32 Pearson Park, Hull.

  1 January 1957 Completes ‘Love Songs in Age’.

  20 May 1957 Betty Mackereth appointed as Larkin’s secretary.

  30 August 1957 On a trip to London with Monica Philip buys the second-hand Rolleiflex camera with which he takes his later photographs.

  4 November 1957 Larkin, Betty Mackereth, and library assistants Mary Wrench and Wendy Mann drive to Busby Hall, North Riding to collect books for the library. Betty drives the hired car.

  February 1958 Anthony Thwaite invites Larkin on behalf of the BBC to contribute to a programme for the European Service entitled Younger British Poets of Today.

  January 1959 The Listen Records recording of Larkin reading The Less Deceived is issued.

  28 May 1959 Who’s Who send for Larkin’s details. He comments to his mother: ‘This pleased me mightily. Pop never got in Who’s Who.’

  September 1959 After meticulous preparation the transfer of books to the newly built University of Hull library begins. ‘We are doing about 10,000 books a day, & it will last about 2–3 weeks.’

  18 October 1958 After many months of drafting, ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ is completed.

  Oct.–Dec. 1959 Monica’s parents die, her mother on 11 October, her father in the second week in December. She falls into depression. Having nowhere to go, she spends Christmas in Loughborough with Eva and Philip, the only time she does so.

  29 December 1959 Mary Wrench marries Stephen Judd.

  March 1960 Larkin travels to Reading University, having applied for the post of librarian. But, after being given a tour round the library and seeing the town (9 March), he catches the train back to Hull and misses the interview. He tells his mother: ‘It’s strange how panicky I got towards the day: I can see now that I didn’t at all want to move from Hull.’

  10 May 1960 Completes ‘Faith Healing’.

  20 June 1960 The Queen Mother officially opens Stage 1 of the Hull library. Both Eva and Monica travel to Hull for the occasion.

  July 1960 Philip and Monica take a holiday in Stocks Hotel, Sark, Channel Islands.

  13–18 August 1960 Eva and Nellie holiday in Llandudno, staying in Hyde before and afterwards.

  11 December 1960 Philip attends the confirmation of his niece Rosemary in St Peter’s Church, Loughborough.

  2 February 1961 On hearing that she has passed the Library Association examination, for which he coached her, Maeve Brennan takes Philip out for a celebratory meal in the Beverley Arms. She writes later that at this point ‘our friendship entered a new and headier phase’.

  11 February 1961 The first of Larkin’s monthly jazz reviews appears in the Daily Telegraph.

  6 March 1961 Larkin collapses in a library committee meeting and is rushed to Kingston General Hospital.

  24 March 1961 Walter drives Kitty and Eva to Hull to visit.

  10–24 April 1961 Larkin admitted to Fielden House, the London Hospital, for tests under the neurologist Sir Russell Brain. Monica stays in a hotel and visits every day. Robert Conquest, Judy Egerton, Stephen Spender, the Amises and John Betjeman also visit. He complains that his hearing has been damaged by infections contracted in the hospital.

  21–26 June 1961 Philip and Monica stay in Durrants Hotel, London, and attend the England vs Australia Test Match at Lord’s. This cricket outing becomes an annual ritual.

  September 1961 Monica moves to 1A Cross Road, Leicester. She also uses money inherited from her parents to buy a second home in Haydon Bridge, near Hexham, Northumberland, on the banks of the Tyne. In subsequent years it becomes routine for Philip to spend New Year with Monica in Haydon Bridge after Christmas with his mother.

  6 November 1961 Completes ‘Broadcast’, addressed to Maeve Brennan, which he later describes as ‘about as near as I get in [The Whitsun Weddings] to a love poem’.

  1961–4 Philip and Eva exchange cuttings concerned with news from the Leicestershire village of Bunny, with jokes about Bunny’s presumed rabbit inhabitants.

  25 February 1961 Mary Judd (Wrench) gives birth to a daughter, Helen. Betty Mackereth and Philip are the godparents.

  2–9 Sept. 1962 Eva and Nellie holiday in Bournemouth.

  3 February 1963 Completes ‘Long Last’, based on Eva’s account of acquaintances of hers.

  10 May 1963 Maeve Brennan persuades Philip to attend a staff dance, which occasions his unfinished poem ‘The Dance’, concerned with his inability to marry.

  August 1963 Eva holidays with Nellie at Cliftonville Hotel, Cromer.

  28 February 1964 The Whitsun Weddings published by Faber.

  3 March 1964 Buys his first car, ‘a Singer with an automatic gearbox’.

  3–10 June 1964 Filming of the BBC Monitor feature ‘Down Cemetery Road’, directed by Patrick Garland.

  August 1964 Eva holidays with Nellie at Sunnyville Hotel, Alexandra Road, Southport, Lancashire.

  Aug.–Sept. 1964 Philip and Monica holiday in Dentdale and Swaledale, Cumbria, and visit the home of Beatrix Potter in Sawrey.

  15 December 1964 ‘Down Cemetery Road’ broadcast.

  3 June 1965 The Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry arrives by post, encased in corrugated cardboard.

  26 August 1965 The Hewetts move from 53 York Road to ‘Oddstones’, 283 Forest Road, one-and-a-half miles from Eva in York Road.

  September 1965 Philip and Monica holiday in Dixcart Hotel, Sark, Channel Islands.

  7 November 1966 Visits his niece Rosemary in Warwick University where she is studying English.

  March 1967 Hull’s library is renamed after the Vice Chancellor, Brynmor Jones, Larkin himself having suggested the idea some time earlier.

  21–25 June 1967 Philip and Monica stay at Durrants Hotel, London, and attend the 2nd Test Match of the India tour of England at Lord’s. They also have dinner with John Betjeman and Lady Elizabeth Cavendish.

  23 September 1967 Monica and Philip visit Bellingham Show for the first time. This and subsequent visits inspire ‘Show Saturday’ (completed 3 December 1973).

  October 1967–March 1968 Eva has problems with her new ‘Parkray’ fire. Larkin engages in correspondence with the contractor and the National Coal Board Heat Advisory Service asking that the fire be removed and requesting a reduction of the bill.

  9 May 1968 Philip tells his mother he has ‘delivered in person to No. 10 Downing Street a refusal of the O.B.E.!’

  July–August 1968 Eva and Nellie holiday in the Windsor Hotel, Great Yarmouth.

  Late 1968 After hearing that she has achieved her two ‘A’ levels in August, Jean Hartley leaves George, and moves into an unfurnished flat with her two daughters. She goes on to register for a degree in English at the University of Hull.

  31 December 1968 Philip and Monica attend the New Year tar-barrel festivities in Allendale, Northumberland, for the first time.

  9 July 1969 Receives an honorary D.Litt. at Queen’s University, Belfast.

  21 July 1969 Undergoes an operation to remove a polyp from his nose, staying overnight in hospital.

  7 August 1969 While on holiday with Eva at the Duke’s Head Hotel, Norwich, Philip notices that his mother is frequently disorientated. They take trips from Norwich to Southwold.

  25 August–14 September 1969 Philip and Monica tour Ireland, viewing Yeats’s grave and visiting Richard Murphy at his home in Cleggan near Westport.

  26 October 1969 Larkin tells Eva that he has written a poem ‘based on our visits to Southwold [
…] It mentions your first meeting with Pop.’ This is ‘To the Sea’.

  9 February 1970 All What Jazz published by Faber.

  12–24 July 1970 Eva stays in the Abbeyfield residential home for the elderly at 17 Victoria Street, Loughborough, allowing Kitty and Walter to take a holiday.

  17 July–5 Aug. 1970 Philip and Monica holiday on Uist and Skye, returning via Haydon Bridge.

  16 September 1970–22 March 1971 Larkin takes sabbatical leave at All Souls College, Oxford, to work on the Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century English Verse. He stays at Beechwood House, Iffley Turn, Oxford.

  12 December 1970 Lord Cohen of Birkenhead opens Stage 2 of the University of Hull library.

  16–20 June 1971 Philip and Monica stay at Durrants Hotel, London, and attend the 2nd Test Match of the Pakistan tour of England at Lord’s.

  15–22 July 1971 Philip and Eva holiday together at the Duke’s Head Hotel, King’s Lynn.

  4–24 August 1971 Eva is booked again into the Abbeyfield home while Kitty and Walter take a holiday in Hungary.

  January 1972 On one of a sequence of diets. On 16 January Larkin weighs ‘halfway between 14 st & 14½ st’.

  January 1972 Goes to the Hull Royal Infirmary for treatment for a crick in his neck. Here he has the first idea for ‘The Building’.

  18 January 1972 Eva is told by the doctor to stay in bed with flu. But it seems that she has also suffered a fall.

  24 January 1972 Eva falls in her kitchen and breaks her hip. After a week in hospital she enters (1 February) Berrystead Nursing Home, Syston, Leicestershire, the care home chosen by Kitty and Philip. From this point on Philip writes to her almost every day, except when he is visiting.

  6 March 1972 Drafts ‘Heads in the Women’s Ward’ on a single workbook page.

  September 1972 Monica moves to 18 Knighton Park Road, Leicester.

  10 October 1972 John Betjeman appointed Poet Laureate.

  October 1972–12 January 1973 ‘The Old Fools’ written in a long drafting process.

  29 March 1973 The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century English Verse published by Oxford University Press.

  23 August–16 September 1973 Philip drives up to Haydon Bridge and then (29 August) he and Monica drive on to Scotland, staying in hotels in Peebles and Fortingall. They then return to Haydon Bridge on 14 September. Philip returns to Hull on 16 September.

  17 May 1974 Eva writes the last letter to Philip to be stamped and posted, though she leaves a number of uncompleted draft letters.

  3 June 1974 High Windows published by Faber.

  27 June 1974 Moves out of 32 Pearson Park and into 105 Newland Park.

  July 1974 Philip and Monica travel to St Andrews, where he receives an honorary D.Litt. on 6 July.

  2–15 Sept. 1974 Philip and Monica holiday for a week in Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries and Galloway, followed by a week in the Yorkshire Dales.

  1–6 August 1975 Philip and Monica stay at Durrants Hotel, London, and attend the 2nd Test Match of the Australia tour of England at Lord’s.

  4 November 1975 Travels to London with Monica and receives his CBE at Buckingham Palace.

  1–7 August 1976 Philip and Monica holiday in Dorset, visiting Dorchester and Bere Regis in the footsteps of Thomas Hardy.

  2 April 1977 Rosemary Hewett, Kitty’s daughter, marries David Parry.

  16 September 1977 The last dated postcard from Philip to Eva in the archive. It is probable that other cards were sent after this which have not survived.

  17 November 1977 Eva Larkin dies at the age of ninety-one.

  29 November 1977 Completes the drafting of ‘Aubade’, abandoned on 7 June 1974.

  1983 Appoints Anthony Thwaite and Andrew Motion as his literary executors.

  2 December 1985 Philip Larkin dies of cancer of the oesophagus in Hull Royal Infirmary at the age of sixty-three.

  25 December 1992 Catherine Hewett dies.

  1994 Rosemary Parry (Hewett) deposits Larkin family papers U DLN/1–5 in the Brynmor Jones Library. The university collection is now held in the Hull History Centre.

  2008 Rosemary deposits more Larkin family papers (U DLN/6–7) in the Brynmor Jones Library.

  Letters Home

  1936–1977

  1936

  24 August 1936

  Picture postcard1

  Hotel Eichburg Werningerode

  Dear Kit,

  Thank you very, very, much for the dance band report. It makes me wish I was with you; & puts me in touch with civilization once more. They sound lovely. Bands here are lousy, except one I saw on Saturday evening in Cologne. personnel: BASS & TROMBONE: SAX & VIOLIN: SAX, VIOLIN & CLAR: TRUMPET & CELLO. PIANO DRUMS. They are all doubled, as I have shown. leader: violin & sax. lovely tone.

  1 Werningerode Rathaus.

  1938

  21 September 1938

  [Penvorn,1 1 Manor Road, Coventry]

  Dear Pop & Mop: –

  Kit said that she was posting a letter to you, so I thought I’d stuff in a note for you.2 I am now a Sixth-Form “man” plus honours plus glory plus a locker plus a blasted place in the Rugger second team which I don’t want. We aren’t set homework – whoopee! (excuse lousy writing), and have several private study periods in the library. Can survey the world with scorn now.

  A new kid called Slater who came into the modern VI has been shoved onto me. Comes from Mansfield & is bespectacled & white. Grogh!!

  Heard that Sankey(!) and I were the only ones who got distinctions in English. Favours in the usual way, please …….

  We read Molières [sic] “Un Médècin(?) Malgré Lui”3 in class today with Horne. To my mind, humerous a few [sic]. Hughes4 says I can be a sub Editor on the Mag as Davies wants to chuck it. (Excuse “healthy schoolboy” tone of letter – you asked for it!) The attaché case meets with much approval. Montgomery has been doing German for a year & doesn’t know what “eingang” means, so you can see I shan’t be taught much.

  Saw M. Dietrich in “Shanghai Express” yesterday.5 Not bad. We received your card & are pleased that you are all o.k. (revolting phrase!) also one from the Ashton people who are at Blackpoo’.6

  Have almost finish[ed] “Jane Eyre” and “Erewhon”.7 I like the first more: but I like the bit in the second (for Pop only) about the college of Unreason & the teachers: “The expression of the faces of these people were repellent (i.e. the graduates & dons); they did not, however, seem particularly unhappy, for none of them had the faintest idea that they were in reality more dead than alive.” Reminiscent of certain gentlemen whom I have an acquaintance …..

  All Love & wishes from

  Philip.

  1 ‘Penvorn’ is a portmanteau of the names of the house’s builder, Percy Vernon Venables.

  2 Sydney and Eva were on holiday in Germany.

  3 Le Médecin Malgré Lui (‘The Doctor in Spite of Himself’): farce by the classic French writer Molière (1622–73), first presented in 1666.

  4 Noel (‘Josh’) Hughes, Larkin’s friend and rival at King Henry VIII School, Coventry. At this point he was editor of the school magazine, The Coventrian.

  5 A 1932 film, directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong and Warner Oland.

  6 Eva Larkin’s only brother, Arthur Day (1888–1941), lived with his wife Nellie (‘Auntie Nellie’) and their family in Ashton-under-Lyne at this time.

  7 Jane Eyre: novel by Charlotte Brontë (1816–55), published in 1847. Erewhon: satirical novel by Samuel Butler (1835–1902), published in 1872.

  1939

  18 June 1939

  Penvorn, Manor Road, Coventry

  Dear Mop (& Pop, if he happens to be there),

  Hope you are painting Southport the correct shade of red. Pop seems to be, to judge from this evening’s Telegraph: –

  “‘FALSE GLAMOUR’ ATTACHED TO ELECTRICITY!”

  “THIS CODDLING OF THE INDUSTRY!”

  “VAGUE & WOOLLY” LANGUAGE!!!

  “M
R LARKIN TELLS THE WORLD”!

  – just a few of the headlines.

  For mai seniah Coventrian praize (haw haw! Eh, what?) I have chosen, in a fit of frenzy, an anthology of the Prose of D.H. Lawrence. The old man1 made a few caustic remarks, i.e. “He led rather a dissipated life, didn’t he?” and I said “Mmm.” (meditative sound) and added, like a FOOL!!! “He was a schoolmaster.” The old man burst into a cackle of laughter (old chump!)

  Oh, well. I don’t think I’ve much to say, but I ’ave been suffrin’ aggernies, dearie, somethin’ chronic!!

  ’Ay fever!! Cor, more like a non-stop sneezing display!!

  Your ’orrid offspring,