Philip Larkin Society

Tiny In All That Air Books Podcast · Every two months · 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 fascinatin...

New episode out today, a gentle ramble through all things PLS with Lyn Lockwood and @chriswriting.bsky.social
Tiny In All That Air - Podcast - Apple Podcasts share.google/4WSVZQtT0ZVk...

Do read Jill and come along to the book club in the new year, bow ties are optional but encouraged.

That's great to hear and it was lovely to catch up with you!

A very cheerful and thoughtful Meet the Members Zoom event last night. We discussed the new PLS book club, suitable images for new merchandise, Larkin's ties, Larkin the prose writer and a potential new fiction genre of Larkin Noir and the Case of the Stolen Painting (of sheep).

It's getting dark and cold, so why not enjoy the warm and cheerful Hull History Centre on 15th November, with a Larkin related drawing workshop in the morning and a fascinating talk about Hull legend, Larkin's friend Ted Tarling in the afternoon.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1761076670...

Maurice Rutherford obituary Poet who wrote with originality, warmth and mischief about his home city of Hull, after turning to writing later in life

Carol Rumen’s heartfelt obituary for Maurice Rutherford who has died at the age of 103. Born in the same year as Philip Larkin, it highlights the strong connections between the two poets and the Hull landscape they both shared. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

This is worth seeing if you can get along to the final shows.

Sunrises and sunsets never get old.
Here are a few photos from road trips
across the Gulf Coast.

Solar
~Philip Larkin
Suspended lion face
Spilling at the centre
Of an unfurnished sky

#poetry #sunset #sunrise #travel #Louisiana #NOLA #FrenchQuarter #MississippiRiver #yellow #urban

Thank you to Joy and Jim at the legendary KallKwik printers in Hull for producing another high quality booklet for our poetry event.

Lovely day for the Avenues walk and writing workshop with Lyn Lockwood and Jane Bluett. The Avenues and Pearson Park looked splendid in the autumn sunshine, and Jane's writing guidance produced all kinds of fascinating responses to Larkin. Thank you to all our attendees and the excellent Artlink.

Comes autumn, and I am clasping up leaves, leaving as many behind. My central (ha ha!) heating is on the blink every 48 hours- I say ha ha! because it never warms the periphery- and I am fed [up] to the teeth with it.
Letter to Judy Egerton, 3 November 1974.

'Swerving east,' on the train from Sheffield to Hull this morning, the Humber Bridge looking as splendid as ever.

The Times (4/10/25) on the new Archbishop of Canterbury: concluding churches are 'precious places which offer opportunities for consolation, reflection and reverence of the kind so beautifully described by Larkin, "A serious house on serious earth it is ... And that much never can be obsolete".

A few places still available for the walking and writing event this Saturday at the Avenues and Pearson Park- please come along and join Lyn and Jane. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1625283579...

‘I stopped at Wawne & poked about in the churchyard, turning up chestnuts in the grass, & noting George Beulah, who had outlived two wives before dying in 1909. All three have identical tall stones.’ Philip Larkin to Monica Jones, 23 October 1962

Chris Sewart, a man wearing glasses and a short-sleeved shirt. He is standing in front of a painting of some poppies and he has his arms crossed.

Simon Armitage - a man wearing a burgundy coloured shirt, with grey hair. He is sat in front of a bookshelf and he's looking towards us thoughtfully.

It's National Poetry Day, and if you're into all things literary then there's lots to look forward to at our next festival - including the UK's Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, local favourite Chris Sewart, and one more special guest to be announced tomorrow - any guesses?

stage4beverley.com/line-up/

#NationalPoetryDay this year's theme is 'play'

And dark-clothed children at play
Called after kings and queens,
The tin advertisements
For cocoa and twist, and the pubs
Wide open all day;

MCMXIV, 1964

Two great E Yorks poets in one post here.

Please enjoy this wonderful piece about Larkin by @zoomburst.substack.com

This empty street, this sky to blandness scoured,
This air, a little indistinct with autumn
Like a reflection, constitute the present-

(Triple Time, from The Less Deceived)

A Little Time in Quiet: Songs About the Morning - Front Porch Republic We’re listening to songs about my favorite time of day, morning, this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs. Accordingly, it’s a pretty mellow episode. Send recommendations my way at symposiumofsongs@g...

Philip Larkin features in this lovely musical and poetic reflection on morning time.

www.frontporchrepublic.com/2025/09/a-li...

'...one never gets any better at writing: never has any idea of how the thing is done, not like making a window frame or seducing women. Or at least I don't.'
(Letter to Douglas Dunn, 15 September 1972)

It certainly did!

It's a stock image but it certainly could have been PAL! The character of Kemp was not meant to be autobiographical in personality or appearance, although some events came from Larkin's own experiences, such as the bombing of Coventry.

John Kemp starts his frst term at Oxford in Larkin's novel, Jill, set in 1940, published in 1946. Jill will be one of the topics of the PLS Conference 2026 March 19-20th.

'His whole appearance lacked luxuriance. Only his silky hair, soft as a seeding thistle, gave him an air of beauty.'

Today #Railway200 celebrates 200 years of the modern rail service. Larkin travels by train in I Remember, I Remember, Dockery and Son and, of course, The Whitsun Weddings

All afternoon, through the tall heat that slept
For miles inland,
A slow and stopping curve southwards we kept.

I listen to money singing. It’s like looking down
From long french windows at a provincial town,
The slums, the canal, the churches ornate and mad
In the evening sun. It is intensely sad.
( From Money, 1974)

Are you going with me? A few thoughts on repetition, repetition, repetition in songs, which then led me onto a few other thoughts about Cass McCombs, Philip Larkin and Alan Partridge

Fascinating post on music and memory, as well as Philip Larkin's Mr Bleaney, by former guest of our podcast Tiny In All That Air.
robinallender.substack.com/p/are-you-go...

On Saturday 20th September Together in Electric Dreams will be appearing in a double-bill with Philip Larkin: Masterspy at Billingtons Oldham!

Book to see both and you'll get a full afternoon's entertainment at a discount rate! Tickets www.fatsoma.com/.../together....

Happy Birthday to Honorary Vice President of the PLS, #NickCave