Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica

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There is evidence that Jones gave Larkin editorial advice on his writing. A copy of Jill he inscribed to her to thank her for making it "decent, ie literate"'. Anna Farthing, a curator of a 2017 exhibition in Hull, told The Guardian: "All the evidence suggests he sends her drafts of his work, he’s constantly asking for her opinion." [15] This was a sexual relationship, if not a very fluent one. Its eroticism announces itself in a bat's squeak or a librarian's whisper. The bicycle-clip cries out to the garter-belt, but softly, softly. Larkin asks for pointers on technique, Monica asks for emotional reassurance. He tries to oblige, but the words he chooses are, "I don't mean, of course, that I don't like making love with you." In this fond struggle between two passive-aggressive types, each of them trying to finesse some decisiveness out of the other, she must have known that a double negative was the most she could hope for. When she points out that he tends to be chilly in letters after a successful meeting, as if to re-establish distance, he does better. His next communication at such a juncture is downright warm.

verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ a b c Hartley, Jean (19 June 2003). "Obituary: Maeve Brennan". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 5 February 2020. Monica Jones was born Margaret Monica Beale Jones on 7 May 1922 in Llanelli, South Wales. [10] She moved with her family to Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire, when aged seven. Educated at Kidderminster High School for Girls, she won a scholarship to study English at Oxford University, a period of her life which was immensely influential to her; she acquired her distinctive accent and flamboyant dress sense whilst studying there. [11]Maeve Brennan (27 September 1929 – 11 June 2003) [23] was born in Beverley, East Yorkshire and was the eldest of three children. Brennan's father was a dental surgeon from Kilkenny, Ireland. Brennan attended Saint Mary's high school for girls in Hull. She had a successful academic career there, becoming head girl, a title she shared with Ruth Bowman and Winifred Arnott, both previous companions of Larkin. [24]

Patsy Strang discovered and read some of Larkin's sexual diaries. [21] She later married the poet Richard Murphy. [22] Maeve Brennan [ edit ] a b c Brennan, Maeve (April 2000). "Larkin with Women: An Inside View" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 February 2014.

Amis, Martin (22 October 2010). "Martin Amis on Philip Larkin's women". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 5 February 2020. Alberge, Dalya (15 January 2018). "Newly seen letters show Philip Larkin's close relationship with mother". The Guardian . Retrieved 28 October 2018. The Larkin-Amis correspondence and the Larkin-Jones have complementary leitmotifs. Most letters to Amis end ritually with "bum", most letters to Monica Jones begin with "bun". Larkin and Jones had a cult of the fluffy rodent, in a running joke that acquired its own seriousness. He wrote in September 1959: "I do deeply feel 'somehow' there is a rabbit there too, doing the things you do; even lecturing on Hopkins. It is a strange fancy. I can't explain it. I think perhaps the rabbit takes your place at times… Of course I know it doesn't really! but I feel loth to say 'there is no rabbit'." They liked Beatrix Potter even when she strayed beyond bunnies, with Larkin declaring that he would sacrifice Joyce, Proust and Mann (foreigners all, admittedly, and he had become scrupulously xenophobic) for The Tailor of Gloucester.

a b c d Morton, Andrew (21 March 1993). "Larkin in love: Part two of the authorised biography of Philip Larkin". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015.As with Larkin and another of his long term companions Maeve Brennan, Monica Jones was buried in Cottingham Cemetery near Hull. Her white headstone is of identical design to the one situated at Larkin's grave.

Cooke, Rachel (26 June 2010). "In search of the real Philip Larkin". The Guardian . Retrieved 28 October 2018. Monica Jones, Philip Larkin and Me, a 2021 book by Jones' friend John Sutherland reveals that Jones and Larkin sent each other many letters containing racist and anti-semitic opinions. [17] Jones taught at Leicester University from 1946 until 1981 when she retired. She never published anything during her academic career; she "regarded publishing as a bit showy", though she was noted for "the panache of her lecturing, in which, for example, she would wear a Scottish tartan when talking about Macbeth." [12] Her literary enthusiasms (not entirely shared by Larkin) included Walter Scott, Jane Austen and George Crabbe. They shared enthusiasm for Thomas Hardy and Barbara Pym, and swapped scornful opinions of C. P. Snow, Pamela Hansford Johnson, William Cooper and others. [14] They shared a sympathy with animals: both of them deplored vivisection and myxomatosis, were fond of Beatrix Potter's creations, and of real creatures, in particular cats and rabbits, though Monica Jones had a fear of hens, and of some other birds. Larkin's letters to Jones were sometimes "embellished with [his] skilful sketches", Jones as a rabbit ("Dearest bun"), himself as a seal. a b John Gilroy (2009). Philip Larkin: Selected Poems. Humanities-Ebooks. p.22. ISBN 9781847601001 . Retrieved 9 August 2012.Eva Larkin was Philip Larkin's mother. Born in 1886, she lived until 1977, dying 29 years after her domineering husband, Sydney Larkin. Larkin is often considered to have had a tense relationship with his parents; mainly due to his famous lyric poem "This Be The Verse" beginning with the line "They f*** you up, your mum and dad". However, mother and son wrote to each other twice weekly for about 35 years from 1940, when Larkin went to Oxford University. The writer Philip Pullen has described these letters as "very significant" and proof that "the relationship was deeper and more valuable to Larkin than anybody might have thought". [6] Winifred Arnott was a young colleague of Larkin at Queen's University, Belfast (QUB). They became close friends but she soon became engaged to her boyfriend and withdrew from the friendship to a degree. Larkin wrote the poem "Lines on a Young Lady's Photograph Album" about her, and also "Maiden Name". Both appeared in Larkin's 1955 collection The Less Deceived. [1] Patsy Murphy [ edit ] Amis is the son of the British novelist, and Larkin's long-standing friend, Kingsley Amis. While primarily a novelist, Amis also wrote more than six volumes of poetry. [4] Biographer Richard Bradford contends that, over the course of Larkin's life, his relationship with Amis transformed from one of mutual appreciation and encouragement, to a much more fraught dynamic. Bradford has stated that in the later years of their relationship Larkin "was subterraneously driven by resentment and near hatred" of Amis. [5] Eva Larkin [ edit ]