Our deputy chair Lyn Lockwood enjoying the Larkin related sights (and shopping) in Leicester today. Aided by our helpful video guide to Larkin's Leicester, filmed by Trustee Philip Pullen, which can be found on the PLS YouTube channel.

“FFS”

Uncredited use of Larkin in this month's Literary Review.

'My latest jazz craze is Ma Rainey, on the strength of three tracks on an LP called 'Louis Armstrong plays the blues''. Letter to Judy Egerton May 14 1956.

P Larkin is always our go-to style model!

A new book by friend of the PLS POET DEAN WILSON. Do order here. www.deanworld.org/product-page...

To any members who wish to join us for the AGM and tour of Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey on June 6th, please register for your place as they are limited, due to the special nature of the building. We are very much looking forward to seeing members there. Booking details in recent members email.

Thank you to everyone who came along to the Book Club last night to discuss A Girl In Winter- what a curious and interesting book! We will read Kingsley Amis's LUCKY JIM next, the novel that caused Monica Jones so much anguish, but also kickstarted Amis's writing career. Date tbc in September.

Our two Education Officers Lyn and Anna are working hard on the podcast discussing Larkin and Hughes and their poems set in Holderness. Our re-launch of Tiny In All That Air will have a fresh focus on the next generation of Larkin readers. All taking place in Larkin's office!

Fantastic evening at Hull Truck Theatre celebrating the life, work and marvellous spirit of Maurice Rutherford.

Fantastic new edition of About Larkin has arrived just in time for morning coffee. Great start to the weekend. Thank you to all our contributors and our editor Clarissa Hard for all their super work.

A Carol Rumens poem published in About Larkin 44 that reflects on the role of poets in a time of conflict.

Still some tickets left for this event...looking forward to representing the Philip Larkin Society @plsoc.bsky.social and doing a couple of Larkin related readings.

Sad news of the death of poet Carol Rumens who taught at the University of Hull and was very much influenced by Larkin's work. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...

OTD Monica Jones was born in 1922. In 1977 on her birthday Larkin gave her a copy of Thorburn’s Mammals (with introduction by David Attenborough born OTD+1 in 1926). And he inserted a poem especially written for her. Larkin left half of his estate to the RSPCA.

In 1940, the young Philp Larkin writes to his friend Jim Sutton explaining that he believed, 'A novel should be a diffused poem.' Larkin's attempt to realise this ambition before turning fully to poetry is explored by Larkin biographer James Booth in his 1992 monograph, 'Philip Larkin, Writer.'

Philip Larkin: Masterspy comes to the Chorlton Arts Festival for one night only! Saturday, 9th May. Check details at hat-hair-productions.blogspot.com/?m=1

The two excellent key note presentations from our conference are now available to view on the PLS YouTube channel. More to follow. www.youtube.com/@thephilipla...

Interesting to see that Larkin was one of the champions of ‘Poems on the Underground’. It made him think of pulpit posters outside churches and a reminder that,”the world of imagination existed”. www.positive.news/lifestyle/ar...

Larkin disliked giving public talks. In April 1954 he wrote to Patsy Strang: 'I have been spending this evening in a way that bodes ill-like the sewing of a shroud. I have been writing a talk on modern poetry-God, the sweat runs down my back when I write the words- to be given by me...'

Our next Book Club will meet by Zoom at 7pm on Monday 11th May to discuss A Girl in Winter. All members welcome, please join us if you would like to learn more about Larkin's second and last published novel and share your thoughts. We will be sending the link out to members soon.

'Miss Green was nearest the gang-way, and the bus had become so overcrowded that a shopping basket swayed above her head, from which hung the end of a leek. At every movement of the owner it tapped Miss Green's hair'. Surreal humour in the style of Barbara Pym from Larkin's A Girl in Winter (1947).

Larkin’s father died on 26 March 1948. A week the following Sunday it snowed in Warwick. This beautiful elegy was never printed in the poet’s lifetime and yet, arguably, it is his first great poem.

A fascinating link!

Larkin gets a reference in a reflection on the work of Douglas Dunn by Don Paterson. Do subscribe to the North Sea Poets Substack/blog for more fascinating poetry exploration. open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Jeremy Wikeley refers to Larkin's Mr Bleaney in this review of Leontia Flynn's collection of poems about homes and living spaces, Profit and Loss. open.substack.com/pub/jwikeley...

Larkin's starkly honest poem Sad Steps, with its allusion to Sir Philip Sidney's 16th century sonnet sequence 'Astrophil and Stella', was completed on this day in 1968 and later collected in High Windows (1974).

On St George's Day, here is a poem that features one of only 3 uses of the word 'English' in Larkin's poetry, which characteristically describes a train journey. From The North Ship, Larkin's first published collection of poetry, 1945.

A bit of Fats Waller and I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter on the Pye Black Box this morning. If you want more information about the PLS Record Club please get in touch.

‘How well Olivier acts the long explanatory scene in the old boathouse - love nest! What cigarette-play, what coat-collared bravado!' Philip Larkin on Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film version of ‘Rebecca’

This article is in the latest issue of Record Collector....What, no Sunday Sessions by Philip Larkin? I feel a letter to the editor coming on! @plsoc.bsky.social

Dr Andrew Palmer exploring the connections and tensions between Ray Davies and Philip Larkin at our recent conference. You can view this, and other conference presentations by subscribing to our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/channel/UCzv...

President of The Philip Larkin Society, Rosie Millard, opens the second day of our amazing 2026 conference. Over the next few weeks we’ll be uploading most of the presentations. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to ensure that you don’t miss any of them. youtu.be/6M273cwajFQ?...

'Larkin's evocation of the icy, claustrophobic, wartime town is heightened by flashbacks to the glowing summer ... Both seasons are vividly evoked.' (Carol Rumens' review of A Girl In Winter, The Guardian 2011). Our online Book Club choice for 11 May meeting. All PLS members very welcome.

The London Magazine Nov 1964 featured an article by Martin Dodsworth called Pain and Recent Poetry. It locates the pain of World Wsr Two in writers such as Thom Gunn, Peter Redgrove and Larkin, saying that Larkin's poems are, 'moving to the point of desolation.'

A lovely comment about our recent conference; 'I had so many energising and illuminating conversations...it feels like a real community is building around these events.' Please put 16-17th March 2028 in your diaries and do get in touch if you have any ideas for speakers or topics.

Do come along and enjoy a fantastic evening celebrating Hull legend Maurice Rutherford.

Probably crossing Cemetery Road... @plsoc.bsky.social

youtu.be/Iv34q25EGng?... We put together a mean conference! Here’s some visual impressions from last week.

Hedgehogs seem to have a way of getting to us! www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

There was some talk of Venn diagrams at this year's conference, partly because John Venn was born in Hull. Here is a pie chart of the conference that also might give some idea of what we spent our two days discussing.

It was a fine blend of the Academic and the Entertaining. The Venn diagram would have Entertainingly Academic or Academically Entertaining at the core. Or both. No one expected the Larkin-Williams Inquisition. Wonderful set dressing too.

For World Poetry Day here's At Grass. One of my favourite Larkin poems read by @plsoc.bsky.social trustee, Julian Wilds. youtu.be/hc0UNcGVLIg?...

The PLS @plsoc.bsky.social again delivers a full two-days to remember at the University of Hull. Thanks to all involved in organising, presenting and attending. Roll on 2028...

Our President Rosie Millard introducing Day Two of the PLS conference at The University of Hull. It’s been a stunningly successful event. Two days of brilliant Larkin focused presentations and discussions attracting an international audience.

The PLS 2026 Conference begins tomorrow at The University of Hull. Here’s a look back at our previous conference in 2024 youtu.be/mo0ElYLxL7g?...

A Girl In Winter translated into Spanish.

The conference starts this Thursday and there are still a few places available for registration. PLS Trustee Dr Anna Stevenson will be discussing the influence of Oxbridge on Larkin and fellow poet Ted Hughes- this will be a fascinating talk.

Oh, this made me laugh. @plsoc.bsky.social

The superb Grayson Perry ‘Aspects of Myself’ Exhibition is at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum until May 3. Themes bring back memories of his outstanding talk to PLS members in Hull in 2017