Philip Larkin

Philip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL, (9 August 1922 ? 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist and jazz critic. He spent his working life as a university librarian and was offered the Poet Laureateship following the death of John Betjeman, but declined the post. Larkin is commonly regarded as one of the greatest English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century. In 2003 Larkin was chosen as the "nation's best-loved poet" in a survey by the Poetry Book Society and in 2008 The Times named Larkin as the greatest post-war writer.

Larkin was born in Coventry, the only son and younger child of Sydney Larkin (1884?1948), city treasurer of Coventry, who came from Lichfield, and his wife, Eva Emily Day (1886?1977), of Epping. From 1930 to 1940 he was educated at King Henry VIII School in Coventry, and in October 1940 went up to St John's College, Oxford to read English language and literature, taking a first-class degree in 1943. Unlike many of his contemporaries during the Second World War, he took the full-length, unbroken degree course, having been rejected for military service because of his bad eyesight. At Oxford he met Kingsley Amis, a lifelong friend and frequent correspondent. In late 1943, soon after graduating from Oxford, he applied for, and was appointed to, the position of municipal librarian at Wellington, Shropshire. In 1946, he became assistant librarian at University College, Leicester (Kingsley Amis was inspired to write Lucky Jim on visiting Larkin and seeing the common room of Leicester University). In March 1955, Larkin became librarian at the University of Hull, a position he retained until his death.