Tiny In All That Air

Lyn and Rachael have been friends for over twenty years. In this episode, they discuss their shared enthusiasm for all things Larkin. 

Larkin poems referred to: Afternoons, Dockery and Son, The Mower, Sunny Prestatyn, The Large Cool Store, A Study of Reading Habits, Toads, Toads Revisited, As Bad as A Mile, Vers De Societe, Home is So Sad, At Grass, The Old Fools, Solar, Church Going, For Sidney Bechet, Reference Back, Wild Oats, Take One Home For the Kiddies. 

Prose: Jill and A Girl In Winter by Philip Larkin. 

Other Larkinalia:  Trouble at Willow Gables, Selected Letters of Philip Larkin ed. Anthony Thwaite, The Philip Larkin I Knew by Maeve Brennan, Treat It Gentle by Sidney Bechet, The Sunday Sessions. 

Other bits and bobs: And When Did You Last See Your Father? by Blake Morrison, Modern Life is Rubbish (LP) by Blur, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Waste Land by TS Eliot. 

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

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Chris Walsh is a novelist who now lives in Kent, and who, in common with Larkin, is also a poet and photographer. In this episode, Chris talks about his sense of place, his love of the Goons and how his novel 'The Dig Street Festival' (to be published later in 2020 by Louise Walters), is influenced by Philip Larkin. Chris reads and discussed Larkin's 'Home is So Sad', and we also talk about This Be The Verse, Next Please and more. Follow Chris on Twitter @WalshWrites and visit louisewaltersbooks.co.uk for more information. 

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.  

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This ‘Larkin in Lockdown’ episode was recorded specially to look at Larkin in the context of Covid-19 and we would like to send out thoughts out to all our supporters and listeners at this difficult time. Lyn and Kyra look at Larkin’s poems of social isolation as well as his poetry about spring and nature. We read from and discuss a range of Larkin’s poems, including Best Society, Here, High Windows, Going, Going, The Whitsun Weddings, Coming and The Trees. We also surprise ourselves with current mole behaviour, recommend a fellow literary podcast, and Lyn reveals what she is going to do first when social distancing comes to an end. 

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.  

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In the second part of our conversation with Kieron Winn, we discuss Faith Healing and ‘coinage’ of all different kinds in Larkin, This Be The Verse, Broadcast, Tom Stoppard and Ian McEwan’s comments on Larkin, Herbert Read’s essay ‘What is a Poem?’, the glacial speed of poetry writing, Wordsworth, Hardy, TS Eliot, and the poetry of grief. Kieron also reads two more poems from The Mortal Man; The Duplicator and Cornwall.

More information about Kieron can be found at kieronwinn.com.

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.  

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Kieron Winn is a widely published poet and teacher whose debut collection The Mortal Man (2015) was glowingly reviewed by both Clive James and Melvyn Bragg. In this first of two episodes, Kieron talks to us about Toads, Dockery and Son, Myxamatosis and more, as well as The Flight from Bootle by John Betjeman, Kieron's thoughts on writing poetry and the 'lunar' landscape of Hull, taking in Tennyson, Wordsworth and Ted Hughes along the way. The podcast also features Kieron reading his own poem First Photo. More information about Kieron can be found at kieronwinn.com. 

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.  

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In this episode we speak to Philip Larkin Society trustee, Philip Pullen, a writer and researcher who is also the society's Media and Publicity Officer and chair of the Larkin 100 celebrations, being planned by the society for 2022. 

He talks to us about the plans for Larkin 100 and his extensive research into Larkin's life, which has uncovered many fascinating stories about the poet and his family. 

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.  

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In this third and final part of our in-depth conversation with James Booth, he tells us about his own books on the poet, Larkin's early schoolgirl poems and astonishing use of language. If you haven't heard parts one and two, be sure to give them a listen.

James Booth is the Philip Larkin Society's Literary Adviser & Co-Editor of About Larkin, the society's journal. He has published two books on Philip Larkin: Philip Larkin: Writer (Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991) and Philip Larkin: The Poet’s Plight (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). He has also edited Larkin’s early girls’-school stories and poems as Trouble at Willow Gables and Other Fictions (Faber, 2002), and a volume of critical essays, New Larkins for Old (Macmillan, 2000), arising from the first Hull International Conference on the Work of Philip Larkin mounted by the Society in 1997. He has recently retired from the Department of English at the University of Hull. His new biography of Larkin: Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love was published in August 2014.

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.  

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Songwriter and musician Wes Finch from The Mechanicals Band joins us to discuss Larkin and to tell us about ‘THE RIGHTEOUS JAZZ’ – a new Larkin-inspired musical and theatre production.

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 fascinating stories to tell and unusual connections to the great poet himself.

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.  

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In this second part of our conversation with James Booth, he talks about Larkin's development as a writer, takes a closer look at 'The Old Fools' and reflects on Larkin's long-term partner, Monica Jones.

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.  

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James Booth is the Philip Larkin Society's Literary Adviser & Co-Editor of About Larkin, the society's journal. He has published two books on Philip Larkin: Philip Larkin: Writer (Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991) and Philip Larkin: The Poet’s Plight (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). He has also edited Larkin’s early girls’-school stories and poems as Trouble at Willow Gables and Other Fictions (Faber, 2002), and a volume of critical essays, New Larkins for Old (Macmillan, 2000), arising from the first Hull International Conference on the Work of Philip Larkin mounted by the Society in 1997. He has recently retired from the Department of English at the University of Hull. His new biography of Larkin: Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love was published in August 2014. In the first part of our conversation with James, he tells us about how he became an expert on Larkin including his time as lecturer of the University of Hull. 

Presented by Lyn Lockwood.  

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