Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life

by Sir Andrew Motion (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1993

  $3.25

  Philip Larkin, known to many through his poems, contrived to present a picture of himself to the world which kept many facets of his complicated personality hidden. In this biography Andrew Motion, Larkin's literary executor and close friend, reveals the full man. Granted access to private documents and assisted by the men and women most intimately connected with the poet, this book tells the story of how Larkin, to the cost of his own happiness and that of others, achieved a writer's life . The author has won the Somerset Maugham Award for poetry and biography.

• Used

  Paperback
  1994

  $3.25

  'An exemplary biography of its kind - detailed, meticulous and sympathetic.' Peter Ackroyd, The Times 'Larkin lived a quietly noble and exemplary version of the writer's life; Motion - affectionate but undeceived about the man's frailties, a diligent researcher and a deft reader of poetry - has written an equally exemplary 'Life' of him.' Peter Conrad, Observer 'Honest but not prurient, critical but also compassionate, Motion's book could not be bettered.' Alan Bennett, London Review of Books 'There will be other lives of Larkin, but Motion's, like Forster's of Dickens, will always have a special place.' John Carey, Sunday Times