Kelvin Everest and Dr Jane Bluett discuss Monica Jones (May 2022)

Tiny In All That Air

In this episode, Lyn talks to Emeritus AC Bradley Professor of Modern Literature at Liverpool University Kelvin Everest and writer, lecturer and poet Dr Jane Bluett, who is the poetry editor for English In Education.

Monica and Philip met in Leicester in 1947, and although Philip soon left Leicester for Belfast and then Hull, Monica stayed as a lecturer at Leicester University for the next 34 years until her retirement. Their life long love affair was a source of great joy and great anguish for both of them. Kelvin tells us about his two years working alongside Monica as a young lecturer in the late 1970s. Jane reflects on Monica’s role as the woman in the background - like Emma Hardy or Viv Eliot - and discusses her influence on Larkin’s poetry. Monica was born on 7th May 2022 and so this podcast marks her centenary which, of course, she shares with Philip Larkin.

Having met through their shared background of poetry and education, Lyn and Jane also read their own poems about Philip Larkin.

References:

Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica ed. Anthony Thwaite (2011), Andrew Motion: A Writer’s Life (1994), John Sutherland: Monica Jones, Philip Larkin and Me: Her Life and Long Loves (2021), Martin Amis: Inside Story (2020), Philip Larkin: Selected Letters ed. Anthony Thwaite (1993) George Crabbe: The Borough (1810), Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes (1943), Dennis Telford: Monica Dearest Bun, A Haydon Bridge Love Story (2014) Kingsley Amis: Lucky Jim (1954).

Haydon Bridge blue plaque: http://www.haydon-bridge.co.uk/larkin.php

Larkin poems referred to: An Arundel Tomb, Annus Horribilis, Show Saturday, Talking In Bed, Wild Oats.

Monica reads One More Quadrille by Winthrop Mackworth Praed (1802-1839). More information can be found here https://literarywoolgatherings.wordpress.com/2020/07/04/winthrop-mackworth-praed-part-1/ and The End of the Episode by Thomas Hardy (1909).

Kelvin Everest: Keats and Shelley Winds of Light (2021) Keats and Shelley: Winds of Light combines unrivalled textual knowledge, biographical and contextual expertise, and profoundly insightful close readings of the poetry in a selection of outstanding essays from a leading critic of English Romantic Poetry. (OUP).

This podcast is one of the many Centenary events that celebrate 100 years since the birth of Philip Larkin run by the Philip Larkin Society and Larkin100.

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Presented by Lyn Lockwood.

Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz

Audio editing by Simon Galloway.

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Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/