Great for aspiring poets — 1 year ago
Motion’s Larkin is the best known biog. on brilliant English poet Philip Larkin. I’m relatively new to his work and this book gave great insight into it as well as his life, which although being led pseudo hermetically (he wasn’t perhaps as hermetic as he liked people to believe) was very interesting. I thought so anyway- many people would find this boring but obviously those people probably don’t read poetry.
anyway, the book also gave me insight into the poetry business, which was useful for me, even though it has changed a great deal since Larkin.
the man himself is shown to have been hilarious yet melancholic and down to earth yet a genius. This is all shown through Motion’s extensive use of letters which Larkin sent to friends (noteably Kingsly Amis), lovers and family.
I found the book well written, and interesting although some people have criticised Motion for detailing Larkin’s vast collection of pornography, as a means of ensuring that his book would be THE Larkin biography.