Today we are joined by our society President, Rosie Millard. Rosie came to Hull as an undergraduate while Larkin was still librarian at the university and she has maintained close links with Hull ever since. She was made Chair of Hull City of Culture 2017 and appointed OBE in the 2018 New Year Honours List for services in the arts to the city of Hull. Rosie is a writer, broadcaster and arts journalist and is also the chair of BBC Children In Need. In today’s podcast, Rosie and I discuss Solar, Money, Cut Grass and How Distant from High Windows to discuss as part of our preparations for the Philip Larkin Society Conference that is taking place in Hull March 14-15th 2024. Rosie starts us off by reflecting on her first 18 months as our president.

With best wishes to Thomas Gordon and in memory of Andrew Eastwood.

Philip Larkin poems referenced and discussed:

This be The Verse, Annus Mirabilis, Going Going, How Distant, Here, The Whitsun Weddings, High Windows, The Old Fools, Absences, Cut Grass, The Mower, The Trees, Aubade, The Old Fools, The Explosion, At Grass, An Arundel Tomb, Solar, Sad Steps, Money

Out of Reach: The Poetry of Philip Larkin by Andrew Swarbrick (St Martin’s Press, 1997)

Poets In Their Time: Essays on English Poetry from Donne to Larkin by Barbara Everett (Clarendon Paperbacks, 1997)

Experience by Martin Amis (Jonathan Cape, 2000)

‘She’s Leaving Home,’ by The Beatles from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Parlophone, 1967)

Music: Shoe Shine Boy, Just a Mood, Tiger Rag from Larkin’s Jazz Disc 1 (I Remember, I Remember), Petit Fleur (Sidney Bechet) played by Monty Sunshine

PLS Conference 2024 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/philip-larkin-society-conference-2024-tickets-769584597247

‘They may not mean to’ tote bag available here (thank you to Grayson Perry for the idea) and Tiny In All That Air pencils https://philiplarkin.com/shop/

New Eyes Each Year Exhibition 2017

https://philiplarkin.com/new-eyes-each-year/#:~:text=Larkin%3A%20New%20Eyes%20Each%20Year%20invites%20questions%20from%20the%20visitor,seen%20letters%2C%20photographs%20and%20doodles.

https://substack.com/@rosiemillard

The Haworth pub (once frequented by Philip Larkin and writers of Hull’s Bete Noir literary journal edited by Jean Hartley, such as Alan Plater)

https://www.greatukpubs.co.uk/haworth-hull/food-and-drink

Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg

Please email Lyn at [email protected] with any questions or comments

PLS Membership and information: philiplarkin.com 

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz