Context

Question 1

What did Larkin have a keen interest in hobby-wise?

Answer 1

Amateur photography and its symbolic significance

Question 2

What did Larkin have a fascination with?

Answer 2

Sex and the objectification of it

Question 3

What did Larkin say about marriage?

Answer 3

‘The only married state I know is bloody hell’

Question 4

How did Larkin end up relationship-wise?

Answer 4

Unmarried and childless

Question 5

What was Larkin’s longest relationship?

Answer 5

With Monica Jones nearly 40 years long from 1946 to 1985

Question 6

Who is Coming inspired by?

Answer 6

Thomas Hardy’s influence on Larkin’s work and allusion to The Darkling Thrush - hope is presented by from an unknown source

Question 7

What music was Larkin a fan of?

Answer 7

Jazz music, writing regular jazz reviews for the The Daily Telegraph. He once commented ‘I can live a week without poetry but not a day without jazz’

Question 8

What attitude did Larkin have towards sex?

Answer 8

Derisory - ‘always disappointing and often repulsive, like asking someone else to blow your own nose for you’

Question 9

What did Larkin’s work mirror?

Answer 9

Some typical ideas of The Movement however he referred to his work as ‘sad-eyed realism’ depicting the pain, uncertainty and compromise of everyday life

Question 10

What does Larkin claim about sex?

Answer 10

‘Sex is too good to share with anyone else’

Question 11

Where did Larkin spend the majority of his life?

Answer 11

Port towns and cities such as Hull and Belfast

Question 12

What did Larkin have towards death?

Answer 12

A pre-occupation and a grave attitude towards the future

Question 13

What was Larkin’s nickname?

Answer 13

The Hermit of Hull

Question 14

Who did Larkin have an unrequited crush towards?

Answer 14

Winifred Arnott - a woman who worked at the library with him. She never saw their friendship as romantic and later became engaged to another man

Question 15

Who did Larkin have an affair with?

Answer 15

Patsy Strang - and she suffered a miscarriage after becoming pregnant during the affair

Question 16

What did Larkin say about Hardy’s work?

Answer 16

‘his subjects are men, the life of men, and the passing of time, love and the fading of love’

Question 17

What did Larkin think about religion?

Answer 17

‘it’s absolute balls’ - rejecting the notion of God

Question 18

What was Larkin’s main job?

Answer 18

Chief librarian at the University of Hull - for 30 years

Question 19

What did Larkin reject?

Answer 19

Poet Laureate

Question 20

What did Larkin do to the library in Hull?

Answer 20

Increased the stock over 6 times larger than when he started

Question 21

What are both Larkin and Hardy consumed by?

Answer 21

The absence of a controlling figure in the world and by the apparent reality of a universe absent of deity or higher purpose

Question 22

What was Larkin’s father like?

Answer 22

A domineering presence, who held extremely right-wing views and an affinity for the Nazi party

Question 23

What did Lisa Jardine say about Larkin?

Answer 23

‘a habitual racist and an easy misogynist’

Question 24

What did Larkin say about sex and women?

Answer 24

‘The whole business of sex annoys me. As far as I can see, all women are stupid beings’

Question 25

What was there a growing sense of in America?

Answer 25

Post-war optimism

Question 26

What was Larkin’s political standpoint?

Answer 26

He was a conservative, cautious of social change and ideas of progress as he was the ‘saddest heart post-war supermarket’

Question 27

What happened in the 1950s in Britain?

Answer 27

Election of Labour government, creation of NHS and promise of class-free society but was also a time of economic hardship with rationing being in place until 1954

Question 28

Why was there a changing national identity?

Answer 28

There was a dissolution of the British empire and the looming threat of the The Cold War and nuclear apocalypse

Question 29

Why did Larkin have a difficult childhood?

Answer 29

He had poor eyesight and a stammer