Product Description

This book traces the author's close friendship with the Philip Larkin and stretches over his 30 year tenure of office as librarian of the University of Hull, taking his literary achievement from "The Less Deceived" (1955) through "The Whitsun Weddings" (1964) to "High Windows" (1974). It reveals Larkin in a new light - courteous, compassionate, generous; a man of deep sensitivity and charm with a natural sense of fun and instinctive wit - in contrast to the gloomy and somewhat objectionable portrait that has emerged since his death. As an intimate friend for three decades, Maeve Brennan testifies to Larkin's idealism, romanticism and otherworldliness, qualities which inspired his lyrical poems but which are not readily associated with Larkin's public persona. As a colleague she was well placed not only to observe Larkin's significant contribution to librarianship, in particular the planning and direction of one of Britain's first post-war libraries, but also his management style and administrative skills. She was thus ideally placed to assess, primarily, Larkin's development as a major poet, as well as his influence as a national librarian, showing how he used his stature as a writer to benefit his profession. This is a unique memoir of the poet; the author's love affair with Larkin is interwoven with their shared professional interests and his literary achievements. An appendix of 55 letters between Larkin and the author, of which only three have been previously published, corroborates the text. It is also the first time both sides of Larkin's correspondence have appeared side by side.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #459193 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

Fine account by close friend compliments other bios
Maeve Brennan reveals another side to the great poet Philip Larkin in her book: the Larkin that was kind and decent to her much of the time throughout their long personal and professional relationship. As someone who loves Larkin's poems (personal favourite: "Next, Please" about the lone black ship following us all, trailing nothing in its wake but shadows), I was glad to read Brennan's personal account, it adds to the portraits drawn in his letters and official biography. (Am I the only one who got an insight into the official biographer's tone, from Larkin's comments about him in the Letters, which came out first?) Maeve Brennan's book will add another dimension to your understanding. The nice Larkin, now that was an element somewhat downplayed in the bio. The reviewer below who complains of Larkin's bigotry, then calls Brennan "a non-literary Catholic" should visit Athens and see the inscription in the restored Agora of the Greek proverb, "Know Thyself."

I also recommend the following poets: Tony Harrison's Selected Poems, Dunn's Elegies, Charles Causley's Selected Poems, Jon Stallworthy's Around the Horn (his Collected Poems).

Larkin Revised
When Philip Larkin died of cancer in 1985, Maeve Brennan, his library associate and lover (although she denies this in the best tradition of Clinton), received a couple of nasty shocks. The first was the discovery that she wasn't the only woman at Brynmawr Jones library receiving Larkin's best (the other being his long time secretary) and that he'd written her out of his will. What's a woman to do? Initially she was outraged telling Motion (Life) that if she were to meet Larkin now she'd greet him with tears and silence. But then as Alan Bates so astutely pointed out in his excellent piece on Larkin: Alas Deceived! that Larkin was a link to immortality for the women in his life and Brennan has belatedly decided to hang on to that link by publishing: The Philip Larkin I knew.

Larkin was foul mouthed, certainly a racist and in all probability a misogynist. In spite of this (or perhaps because of it) he is the best English poet since Elliot. But Brennan doesn't rely on his poetic talents to mount a defense - that wouldn't be good enough for a non-literary Catholic girl - instead she'd have us believe that Larkin was a genuinely warm loving human, and had just been misunderstood after the publication of the Life and Collected Letters. She bases her case entirely on a juvenile letter written by Larkin to his childhood friend Jim Sutton and referred to as "The Moment of Ecstasy Letter" throughout the book. In it a young (and foolish) Larkin argues that we shouldn't rush to the moment of ecstasy and that it's better to wait for pleasure than to rush into it. Brennan would have us believe that her relationship with Larkin was based upon that principle, i.e., putting off the moment of ecstasy and that they weren't at it like rabbits! This is one of the more annoying things about this book; on the one hand Brennan maintains throughout that she couldn't compromise her religious views on non-marital sex and then we discover letters written by the author speaking of how wonderful something (we're never told what) was and that he (Larkin) would never have experienced it with someone (presumably other than Brennan) that he'd been married to for over fifteen years. By mounting a foolish attack on political correctness Brennan hopes to deal with the charges of racism leveled against Larkin. She argues that in Larkin's life the term PC hadn't even been coined so how can we expect him to abide by it! Hadn't Larkin heard of empathy, good manners, tolerance and respect? And would he have only recognized those traits if they'd been presented to him as PC behavior? There are other bits that are equally amusing. Brennan is an Irish Catholic yet she lumps her self with the "British Empire" and the "War we had just fought". Surely she must have known Larkin's view on Catholicism and Loyalist politics in Northern Ireland, didn't he proclaim himself the most loyal supporter of the Orange Order in Hull?

Brennan's writing style is unadorned, perhaps suitably so when writing about someone like Philip Larkin. The book has some redeeming parts to it, especially those relating to Brennan's early life and those about the young Larkin in Hull. The new Larkin letters published for the first time in this book aren't particularly edifying: they show a Larkin who wrote short hasty letters, almost fulfilling an onerous responsibility rather than those between lovers. He certainly doesn't engage in any intellectual debate with Brennan. This book is still important for people engaged in research on Larkin and his work and does make an amusing if light read.

It appears that the hardback version of this book has been designed solely for library use with a very uninspiring green finish sans dust jacket. Most people will find the...price tag prohibitive.