Review “Booth shows Larkin's variety, from near-religious adoration to lasciviousness to slashingly witty… A consummated dream of a literary biography.” ―Booklist (starred review) Read more About the Author James Booth is the literary adviser and coeditor of the Philip Larkin Society. He is the author of two studies of Larkin's work, Philip Larkin: Writer in 1991 and Philip Larkin: The Poet's Plight. He has also edited a collection of Larkin's early girls' school stories and poems and a volume of critical essays, New Larkins for Old. He has recently retired from the Department of English at the University of Hull, where he was a colleague of Larkin's for seventeen years. Read more
D**E
I'm so glad I read this
I'm so glad I read this. It's not uncritical of Larkin, but it's also not a hatchet job. He wasn't a perfect human being. He was misanthropic, true. He had woman issues, true. But he was a decent enough person (if very dark in his old age) and he remains a brilliant poet, for the ages.
D**R
A balanced account of this wonderful poet who has often been characterized as a not-so-wonderful ...
A balanced account of this wonderful poet who has often been characterized as a not-so-wonderful person. It will enhance your appreciation for the poems that earned him a place in Westminster Abbey as well as your tolerant understanding of the man who gave us such riches.
M**N
I'm glad he is now getting more exposure in the U
He is truly a geat poet! I'm glad he is now getting more exposure in the U. S. A.
D**S
An insightful and vivid biography of poet Philip Larkin
Philip Larkin (1922-1985) was a university librarian in England by profession, and an accomplished poet and writer by passion. This book illustrates his literary career spanning four decades. James Booth was an editor to many of Larkin's books. Thus, Booth possessed a first-hand knowledge that helps in bring out this insightful and vivid biography of Philip Larkin.
D**O
To be or not to be
In our hurried lives we often forget he simplicity and calm of poets. This book captures this complex figure. It also gives exposure to one of the greatest poets of all time. A touching biography.
B**N
Five Stars
A masterly biography that gives a complex subject his due. The Motion biography is simplistic and laughable by comparison.
K**K
that Larkin helped at best conservative political views
Booth's biography gets one star from me because a) he can write and b) his research is scrupulous. But these fairly basic expectations are negated by the hagiographic apologia that constitutes this volume. Booth's attempts to rebut the claims of many scholars, over years, that Larkin helped at best conservative political views, are laughable. We know Larkin was a Tory Nationalist who enjoyed racist humour. It's no surprise to Larkin scholars, or indeed, people who have a basic education in 20th century literature. There was no need for this heavy handed and clumsy rebuttal which anyway remains wholly unpersuasive. There is no worse biographical sin to my mind that hagiography and this biography sets a new benchmark on that score..
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