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Philip Larkin
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Philip Larkin
persona image
Philip Larkin
persona image
Philip Larkin
persona image
Philip Larkin

Philip Larkin, poet, novelist and librarian, was born in Coventry in 1922. He published four volumes of poetry – The North Ship (1945), The Less Deceived (1955), The Whitsun Weddings (1964) and High Windows (1974) – for which he received innumerable honours including the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and the WH Smith Award. He also wrote two novels, Jill (1946) and A Girl in Winter (1947), and his journalism is collected in two volumes, All What Jazz: A Record Diary and Required Writing: Miscellaneous Prose. He worked as librarian at the University of Hull from 1955 until his death in 1985.

In 2003, he was chosen as Britain’s best-loved poet of the previous fifty years by the Poetry Book Society; in 2008, The Times named him Britain’s greatest post-war writer; and in 2016, a memorial stone in his name was unveiled in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Biography
1922
Philip Larkin is born on 9 August in Coventry, in the Midlands, where he lived throughout his childhood.
1940
Larkin arrives at Oxford University, where he studies English at St John's College.
1945
Larkin's first collection of poetry, The North Ship, is published by Fortune Press.
1946
Philip Larkin's first novel, Jill, is published, also by Fortune Press.
1947
Larkin's second - and final - novel, A Girl in Winter, is published by Faber & Faber, receiving positive reviews in the press.
1955
Larkin becomes University Librarian at the University of Hull, a position he holds for the rest of his life. His second poetry collection, The Less Deceived, is published by the Marvell Press.
1964
The Whitsun Weddings, Larkin's most famous poetry collection, is published by Faber, and Faber reissues his first novel, Jill.
1974
Philip Larkin's final poetry collection, High Windows, is published.
1985
Philip Larkin dies on 2 December. He was 63 years old.
Books by Philip Larkin
Author Videos
‘Aubade’ read by Philip Larkin
Alan Bennett reads from ‘Trees’
Author Videos
‘Aubade’ read by Philip Larkin
‘Aubade’ read by Philip Larkin
Alan Bennett reads from ‘Trees’
Alan Bennett reads from ‘Trees’