Wordplay, friendship, and sweet sadness: having Philip Larkin to stay
One evening in Norfolk in 1982, we discussed everything from his penchant for macaroni cheese to his poetic legacy.
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Philip Larkin is a love poet who doesn’t trust love
He offers an uncensored picture of a damaged and unhappy sensibility – but leaves us with the possibility of hope.
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Unlike most poets, Philip Larkin dared to be mean
People rarely moved him to sentiments of kindness but one senses that he wished they would.
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Is there room for people like me in Larkin’s England?
His poems ignored Britain’s postwar diversity and dynamism, and his racist language challenged my love of his craft.
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Nora Ephron and the art of self-narrative
The writer and film-maker poured her life into her journalism and romcoms. What can a new biography tell us that…
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The Lighthouse of Stalingrad: how Putin exploited a wartime myth
There are echoes of the invasion of Ukraine in the epic battle for Stalingrad, but this time Russia is on…
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Nietzsche before the breakdown
In the 1880s, the ailing philosopher prophesied the West’s violent decline – but not even he could prevent it.
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Reviewed in short: New books from Jonathan Freedland, Kate Molleson, Linda Villarosa and Benjamin Wood
The Escape Artist by Freedland, Sound Within Sound by Molleson, Under the Skin by Villarosa and The Young Accomplice by…
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