Wink wink, nudge nudge?

The original Larkin (Philip) was the librarian at Hull when I was an undergraduate. All we pretentious young poetniks loved him for Whitsun Weddings:

'Thence the river's level drifting breadth began,

Where sky and water and Lincolnshire meet.'

Philip was an icon, even though he (allegedly) spent most of his time slurping whisky and writing long vitriolic letters to his mate Kingsley Amis.

At that time we also had Cecil Day Lewis as writer in residence, and I was taken to a seminar with him by my friend Doug Houston, who was a good friend of Douglas Dunn, and later became published by Faber and an occasional poetry critic for the Observer.

With Cecil we explored the poem Death of a Child(?) by Edward Thomas, and Constance Mackiewics by Yeats:

'The innocent and beautiful have no enemy but time...'

Well, I'm not sure that last sentiment is totally true, but it was a memorable experience of then.

A friend of mine, having a discreet chat to someone in the Brynmor Jones Library once, felt privileged when Philip came over to him, wondering what the great man would say.

He said: 'Listen, you little sod, just belt up will you? Don't you know you're in a library?'

Well, I guess he may have been in the throes of creation at the time or something.

As for EPO Larkin, yes an icon too. Not as great as Philip (ah, how many could be?), but a distinguished balladeer, yes, and IMO, a pretty decent fellow to boot.

Best wishes to both you and Moley if you're reading, Nigel.