Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love

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.

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.

He is truly a geat poet! I'm glad he is now getting more exposure in the U. S. A.

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.

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.

A masterly biography that gives a complex subject his due. The Motion biography is simplistic and laughable by comparison.

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..