Philip Larkin - Life Art and Love

James Booth

Summary

A revelatory, intimate, and sympathetic study of Philip Larkin, an iconic poet and a much misunderstood man, offering fresh understanding of the interplay of his life and work. 
 
Philip Larkin (1922-1985) is one of the most beloved poets in English. Yet after his death a largely negative image of the man himself took hold; he has been portrayed as a racist, a misogynist and a narcissist. Now Larkin scholar James Booth, for seventeen years a colleague of the poet's at the University of Hull, offers a very different portrait. Drawn from years of research and a wide variety of Larkin's friends and correspondents, this is the most comprehensive portrait of the poet yet published. 
 
Booth traces the events that shaped Larkin in his formative years, from his early life when his his political instincts were neutralised by exposure to his father's controversial Nazi values. He studies how the academic environment and the competition he felt with colleagues such as Kingsley Amis informed not only Larkin's poetry, but also his little-known ambitions as a novelist.  
 
Through the places and people Larkin encountered over the course of his life, including Monica Jones, with whom he had a tumultuous but enduring relationship, Booth pieces together an image of a rather reserved and gentle man, whose personality-and poetry--have been misinterpreted by decades of academic study. Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love reveals the man behind the words as he has never been seen before.

Available since: 11/04/2015.

Print length: 544 pages.

Biography & Memoirs

Other books that might interest you

Running for Our Lives - Stories...

Rachel Ann Cullen

'Every time I speak to someone and hear about their experiences, it leaves me with a sense of running's incredible power to help people overcome pretty much anything.'
Each day, millions of people around the world put on their trainers and try to deal with their personal demons and life challenges by going for a run. And, increasingly, they do it knowing that they are not alone: a growing and often virtual community is right there running alongside them. We are all, in some sense, running for our lives.
Rachel Ann Cullen's first book, Running for My Life, described her own marathon journey through depression, bipolar disorder and body dysmorphia, and her revelatory discovery that running could transform her physical and mental wellbeing. Since hearing from people who had read about her experiences, Rachel wanted to tell some stories of other runners from all around the world – ordinary people living with mental health struggles, dealing with grief, cancer and other unavoidable life events who have relied on running to get them through their worst days and to keep going. Running for Our Lives shares moving accounts of hope and resilience; it demonstrates the power of running to help us all overcome adversity, and is a lesson for us all in learning not only how to survive life's challenges, but to thrive.

Show book

The Education of a Radical - An...

Michael Johns

“An uncompromising look at his younger self and the Nicaraguan revolution . . . that compels readers to question their own motivations and beliefs.” —The Americas When Michael Johns joined a Sandinista militia in 1983, a fellow revolutionary dubbed him a rábano, a radish: red on the outside but white on the inside. Now, more than twenty-five years later, Johns appreciates the wisdom of that label as he revisits the questions of identity he tried to resolve by working with the Sandinistas at that point in his life. In The Education of a Radical, Johns recounts his immersion in Marxism and the Nicaraguan sojourn it led to, with a painful maturation process along the way. His conversion began in college, where he joined a student group called the Latin American Solidarity Association and traveled to Chiapas, Mexico, for research on his senior thesis. Overwhelmed by the poverty he witnessed, he experienced an ideological transformation. When a Marxist professor later encouraged him to travel to Nicaragua, the real internal battle began for him, a battle that was intensified by the U.S. invasion of Grenada and its effect on the Sandinistas, who believed they were the next target for an imminent American invasion. Before he knew it, Johns was digging trenches and learning how to use an AK-47. His intellectual ideals came face-to-face with revolutionary facts, and the results would perplex him for years to come. Bringing to life a vivid portrait of the sometimes painful process of reconciling reality with romanticized principles, The Education of a Radical encapsulates a trove of truths about humanity, economics, and politics in one man’s memorable journey.

Show book

Tutu - Authorized

Mpho Tutu

Commemorating Desmond Tutu's eightieth birthday, this stirring biography commemorates the life, philosophy, faith, and achievements of one of the greatest moral heroes of our time. Written by Allister Sparks, Tutu: Authorized featuring contributions from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, President Barack Obama, and Nelson Mandela, as well as interviews given by Reverend Mpho Tutu, Desmond Tutu’s daughter, to world leaders and public figures including Hillary Clinton, Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter, Bono, Richard Branson, and F.W. de Klerk. A stirring exploration and graphically rich presentation of one of the world’s most inspirational and altruistic figures, Tutu: Authorized overflows with illuminating revelations about Tutu’s life and resonates with insights into how we can each work to improve peace, fairness, and happiness in the world around us.

Show book

Forward with Patton - The World...

Robert S. Allen

The WWII diary of a US soldier and Soviet spy who worked closely with General Patton is presented in this fully annotated edition. 
 
Robert S. Allen is one of the more controversial figures of the Second World War. After serving in France during World War I, he left the military to start a career as a syndicated columnist, eventually becoming the Washington, DC, bureau chief for the Christian Science Monitor. In that time, he also developed a sideline as a paid informant for the KGB. 
 
When American entered World War II, Allen rejoined the army to serve as General Patton's chief of situation and executive officer for operations. He was considered such an authority on Patton after the war that Twentieth Century-Fox asked him to develop a film script about the general. 
 
In Forward with Patton, John Nelson Rickard presents a complete, annotated edition of Colonel Allen's World War II diary for 1944-1945. The entries reflect Allen's private thoughts on the Third Army and provide an invaluable perspective on Patton, whom Allen deeply admired.

Show book

Benjamin Franklin

Edmund S. Morgan

Benjamin Franklin is perhaps the most remarkable figure in American history: the greatest statesman of his age, he played a pivotal role in the formation of the American republic. He was also a pioneering scientist, a best-selling author, the country's first postmaster general, a printer, a bon vivant, a diplomat, a ladies' man, and a moralist - and the most prominent celebrity of the 18th century.  
Franklin was, however, a man of vast contradictions, as Edmund Morgan demonstrates in this brilliant biography. A reluctant revolutionary, Franklin had desperately wished to preserve the British Empire, and he mourned the break, even as he led the fight for American independence. Despite his passion for sciences, Franklin viewed his groundbreaking experiments as secondary to his civic duties. And although he helped to draft both the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution, he had personally hoped that the new American government would take a different shape. Unraveling the enigma of Franklin's character, Morgan shows that he was the rare individual who constantly placed the public interest before his own desires.  
Written by one of our greatest historians, Benjamin Franklin offers a provocative portrait of America's most extraordinary patriot.

Show book

The Day the Nazis Came - The...

Stephen Matthews

The Day the Nazis Came is an utterly unique memoir, depicting the world of prison camps through the eyes of a child. Stephen's parents did their best to protect his emotional well-being, downplaying the extent of dangers and presenting every new day as an adventure.But there is only so much you can do to hide such a dark truth and, by the time he was six years old, Stephen Matthews had actually seen and experienced things of unspeakable horror: he had witnessed a bombardment by the Luftwaffe and had been deported from occupied Guernsey, along with his family, to a prison camp in the heart of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich; he had seen men die in front of him; he had walked alongside Jews coming straight off the cattle-trucks from Bergen-Belsen; he had nearly drowned, been menaced by an Alsatian guard dog, and had his hand broken by a German guard for attempting to feed Russian prisoners.Against all odds, Stephen and his family endured over three years of imprisonment, held together by their will to survive, their love for each other, and the humor they had all been gifted with. But when the war ended and they were set free, the home they eventually returned to had been irremediably scarred and stricken by Nazi occupation and so, once again, they had to fight to pick up the pieces.

Show book