Tiny In All That Air

'He [Ted Hughes] writes about the Humber as this mythical creature in a way, that consumes all of the outpouring of the people of Hull.'
Dr Anna Stevenson is a Trustee of the Philip Larkin Society- she also works at the Brynmor Jones Library and was born and grew up in Holderness, so she has a very special affinity with Philip Larkin as well as Ted Hughes. This episode was recorded in Larkin's office in the library, which is great for atmosphere, but a little echoey at times.
In this discussion we talk about Hughes' poem The Road to Easington and its links to Philip Larkin's poetry.
Poems discussed:
Larkin- Here,Show Saturday, High Windows, A Bridge for the Living
Hughes- Mayday in Holderness, Song
Sylvia Plath- The Bee Meeting

We also mention TS Eliot, Shakespeare and John Betjeman along the way.

To mark Halloween, Lyn takes us on a walk around her local cemetery and reads Ghosts by Philip Larkin.
Thank you to Joe Riley for inspiration - please listen to his excellent in situ poetry podcast Sketch Poetry
https://open.spotify.com/show/4Ubm0zfLmjrOqVqMWulgf0

Spooky music- thank you to https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/royalty-free-music/download/ghost-stories/1291

Read the poem here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Poetry/comments/ernxrt/poem_ghosts_by_philip_larkin/

or
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Poems-Philip-Larkin/dp/0571240062
The Complete Poems of Philip Larkin ed. Archie Burnett (Faber and Faber, 2012)
Theme music:
The Horns of the Morning by Wes Finch and the Mechanicals Band
https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz
Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg

Lyn and Chris discuss the recent writing workshop run by the Philip Larkin Society called Drafting a World: a Poetry Writing Workshop inspired by the poetry of Philip Larkin, with Nottingham based writer Jane Bluett at the Avenues in Hull on Saturday 11th October at ArtLink. Chris reads his  new Larkin poem from the workshop, Father of the Bride and we talk about the power of using Larkinalia and Larkin’s words to inspire us. We also discuss the treasures to be found in About Larkin, Maurice Rutherford,  the upcoming PLS Book Club and Jill, and the upcoming Stage4Beverley music and literature festival, for which Chris is festival poet, our shared love of yarnbombing and the (very small) PLS Makers Society. We also look ahead to the 2026 PLS Conference March 19-20th.

Larkin texts discussed
The Whitsun Weddings, High Windows, Water, Toads Revisited, Jill, A Girl In Winter, Required Writing, For Sidney Bechet
Other writers/texts mentioned:
Dylan Thomas Under Milk Wood (1954), Maurice Rutherford Here 2012, (from Under Travelling Skies ed. Cliff Forshaw) (2012) An Enormous Yes (Peterloo Poets, 1986), Wendy Cope Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis (Faber and Faber 1986), Barbara Pym,Ted Hughes,  Kingsley Amis, TS Eliot, Saltburn (dir. Emerald Fennell, 2023), Brian Bilston, Simon Armitage, Alan Johnson
Reading/references:
'Fifty Years On: Bringing 'The Whitsun Weddings' to Life: A performance by Ensemble 52: 6 June 2014. A report is on page 14 of this pdf of the society's journal: About Larkin...About-Larkin-38.pdf. 
Wendy Cope
the poem, Mr Strugnell, is featured in Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis (Faber & Faber, 1986)
Wendy Cope - Poetry Archive
About Larkin 15- featuring article by Sean O’Brien and Wendy Cole’s interview with Larkin’s neighbours at 32 Pearson Park
https://philiplarkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/About-Larkin-15.pdf

Maurice Rutherford
https://www.thehullstory.com/allarticles/maurice-rutherford-obituary
Stage 4 Beverley
Festival Poet - Chris Sewart – Stage 4 Beverley Festival Poet, in association with The Philip Larkin Society - Stage 4 Beverley
Tickets and line-up -  Stage 4 Beverley

Artlink.
Venue for PLS poetry Writing Workshops: Artlink Hull

Chris Sewart Society of Authors profile page:
Chris Sewart - The Society of Authors

Some of Chris's recent poems can be found/purchased at:
Echoes - 20 years of Write Out Loud | Write Out Loud
The Fig Tree - Issue 9 - by Tim Fellows - The Fig Tree  
 The Fig Tree - Issue 10 - by Tim Fellows - The Fig Tree
The Fig Tree Coal Mining Anthology - Shop – Crooked Spire Press
The Leaf, issue 2 - The Leaf issue 2 | Three Blue Beans

Please register to attend the PLS Conference 2026 here (currently at an Early Bird rate)
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1727992314529?aff=oddtdtcreator

Hull History Centre Larkin event on November 15th- art workshop followed by talk on Ted Tarling- please purchase your tickets here and come along
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1761076670729?aff=oddtdtcreator
Music:
Henry Allen Feeling Drowsy (1929)
Theme music:
The Horns of the Morning by Wes Finch and the Mechanicals Band
https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz
Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg and https://www.podmachine.com/
Please email Lyn at ⁠plsdeputychair@gmail.com ⁠ with any questions or comments
PLS Membership, events, merchandise and information: philiplarkin.com

This year we celebrate Larkin’s birthday and the 70 year anniversary of the publication of The Less Deceived with a full reading of Larkin's second collection.
We begin with an introduction to the collection with regular attendees of the podcast, our chair Graham Chesters and trustee Philip Pullen, and we reflect on some of the history of the publication of The Less Deceived.
Thank you to all the people that have helped produce this podcast.
A special thank you to our chair Rosie Millard, who was of enormous help with making the recording of Sir Tom Courtenay reading Church Going. 

Readers:
Lines on a Young Lady's Photograph Album Philip Pullen
Wedding-Wind Lynn Harrison
Places, Loved Ones Julia Munrow
Coming Brian Bilston
Reasons for Attendance Daniel Wain
Dry Point Michael Egan
Next, Please Dr Andrew Palmer
Going Greg Sestero
Wants Joe Malago
Maiden Name Mary Mccollum
Born Yesterday Cate Blanchett
Whatever Happened? Melissa Dennison
No Road Hannah Sullivan
Wires David Biespiel
Church Going Sir Tom Courtenay
Age Dr Jane Bluett
Myxomatosis Daniel Vince
Toads Justine Gaubert
Poetry of Departures Prof Douglas Bell
Triple Time Jacqueline Baron
Spring Cate Blanchett
Deceptions Hannah Sullivan
I Remember, I Remember Brian Bilston
Absences Sinead Morrissey
Latest Face Gerry Skeens
If, My Darling Alex Howard
Skin Marco Pirroni
Arrivals, Departures Jeremy Wikeley
At Grass Julian Wild
References:
Early Larkin by James Underwood (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021)
Pretending to Be Me by Tom Courtenay (2003) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pretending-Be-Me-Philip-Portrait/dp/1405500824
Jean Hartley- Philip Larkin, The Marvell Press and Me (Faber, 2011)
Philip Larkin, Life, Art and Love by James Booth (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014)
TS Eliot- The Four Quartets (Faber, 1941)
On First Looking into Larkin’s The Less Deceived A T Tolley 2 The paper first delivered at the 2003 Conference https://philiplarkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/About-Larkin-18.pdf
The background to the article in the Beverlonian that Graham refers to is referenced in Philip Pullen’s  piece in About Larkin 45 about the Beverley walk
https://philiplarkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/About-Larkin-45.pdf
https://rosiemillard.substack.com/p/what-will-survive-of-us
Music:
 Home Cooking by Eddie Condon and his Orchestra from the Larkin’s Jazz box set, 2010  https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jul/22/various-artists-larkins-jazz-review
Theme music:
The Horns of the Morning by Wes Finch and the Mechanicals Band
https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz
Produced by Lyn Lockwood, Simon Galloway and Gavin Hogg
Please email Lyn at ⁠plsdeputychair@gmail.com ⁠ with any questions or comments
PLS Membership, events, merchandise and information: philiplarkin.com

Our guest today is writer  Ralph Dartford who works for the National Literacy Trust and is the poetry editor of literary journal Northern Gravy.   Ralph kindly made the journey from Bradford to the Lockwood residence in Sheffield, and we settled down in my living room with mugs of tea and a plate of biscuits, surrounded by books and looked down upon by at least three pictures of Larkin.
 Ralph also co-organises the fantastic Louder Than Words festival that takes place in Manchester every autumn, and is a celebration of writing about music. They gather together amazing writers, broadcasters and musicians to discuss, explore and debate all things music and music industry related.  I hope we will continue to see Ralph at more PLS events.
Larkin poems mentioned:
The Whitsun Weddings, Dockery and Son, Mr Bleaney, For Sidney Bechet, High Windows, Cut Grass, To The Sea, MCMXIV, Here, Broadcast
All What Jazz: A Record Diary 1961-1971 (1985) by Philip Larkin
The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse - ed.  Philip Larkin (1973) 
I am happy to see Mr. Larkin's taste in poetry and my own are in agreement ... I congratulate him most warmly on his achievement. - W. H. Auden, The Guardian
Poets/writers/musicians mentioned by Ralph
Kae Tempest, Joelle Taylor, Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Vicky Foster, Steve Ely, Chris Jones, Ian Parks, John Betjeman, John Cooper Clarke, John Hegley, Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy, Michael Stewart, Blake Morrison, Count Basie, John Coltrane, Sidney Bechet, Alan Bennett, Stewart Lee, David Quantick, Ray Davis, Blur,  Van Morrison,  Hang Clouds, Evelyn Glennie, Kingsley Amis, Andrea Dunbar, Helen Mort
Other references:
Adlestrop (1914) by Edward Thomas https://www.edwardthomaspoetryplaces.com/post/adlestrop
Arthur Scargill:  “Arthur Scargill, the miners’ leader and socialist, once told The Sunday Times, ‘My father still reads the dictionary every day. He says your life depends on your power to master words.” Martin H. Manser, The Penguin Writer's Manual
Bob Monkhouse https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/dec/30/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries
Longbarrow Press https://longbarrowpress.com/
Valley Press https://www.valleypressuk.com/
Kes (1968) by Barry Hines
Ralph is Poetry Editor for Northern Gravy https://northerngravy.com/
Ralph reads Geese and England’s Dreaming from House Anthems  https://www.valleypressuk.com/shop/p/house-anthems
Gareth Southgate https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-57816651 
Simon Armitage Larkin Revisited Radio 4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m0019yy2
Nick Cave- Honorary Vice President for the Philip Larkin Society- Desert Island Discs https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0027cgl
Lyn’s English teacher 1982-1989 https://petercochran.wordpress.com/remembering-peter/
The Ted Hughes Network https://research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/tedhughes/
James Underwood https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/early-larkin-9781350197121/
Albums mentioned:
OK Computer (1997) by Radiohead , Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) and The White Album (1968) by The Beatles, Park Life (1994) by Blur
Summertime in England by Van Morrison https://www.vice.com/en/article/summertime-in-england-a-monologue-on-van-morrison/
Events:
https://louderthanwordsfest.com/

"My Friend Monica": Remembering Philip Larkin's Partner Monica JonesSat 22 Mar 2025 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Ken Edwards Lecture Theatre 2, University of Leicester, LE1 7RH
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/literaryleicester/1538331

A celebration marking 70 years of Philip Larkin's 'The Less Deceived'
For World Poetry Day
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-celebration-marking-70-years-of-philip-larkins-the-less-deceived-tickets-1235639173029?aff=oddtdtcreator
Produced by Lyn Lockwood and Gavin Hogg
Please email Lyn at ⁠plsdeputychair@gmail.com ⁠ with any questions or comments
PLS Membership, events, merchandise and information: philiplarkin.com