Uncategorized – Roots & Wings

Philip Larkin: the poet and person who dulls and shocks

Delving into the critical quagmire of Philip Larkin’s reception as a poet, and a very controversial person, is at once time-consuming and shocking. Prior to reading John Sutherland’s biography of Larkin’s wife, Monica Jones, Philip Larkin and Me (2021), I had no idea whatsoever of the couple’s abhorrent racism, anti-Semitism and misogyny. Towards the endContinue reading “Philip Larkin: the poet and person who dulls and shocks”