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Lead book review

Two of a kind: Monica Jones proved Philip Larkin’s equal for racism and misogyny

Monica Jones certainly proved Philip Larkin’s equal for racism and misogyny, says Andrew Motion

24 April 2021

9:00 AM

24 April 2021

9:00 AM

Monica Jones, Philip Larkin and Me: Her Life and Long Loves John Sutherland

Weidenfeld, pp.280, 20

By the time Philip Larkin died in 1985, he’d long since achieved national treasure status: his poems were critically admired as well as widely read; his reticence (‘the Hermit of Hull’) was a matter of affectionate respect; and his cantankerous published remarks about ‘difficulties with girls’, children, left-wing politics, and ‘abroad’ were generally embraced as proof of valiant individualism — or possibly a grouchy kind of joke.

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