Editing Philip Larkin (section)

===Later life===
{{Quote box
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 |quote=Dockery, now:<br />
Only nineteen, he must have taken stock<br />
Of what he wanted, and been capable<br />
Of . . . No, that's not the difference: rather how<br />
Convinced he was he should be added to!<br />
Why did he think adding meant increase?<br />
To me it was dilution.
 |source=''from'' "Dockery and Son" (1963),<br />''[[The Whitsun Weddings]]''
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In February 1961 Larkin's friendship with his colleague Maeve Brennan became romantic, despite her strong Roman Catholic beliefs.<ref>Bradford 2005, p. 183.</ref> In early 1963 Brennan persuaded him to go with her to a dance for university staff, despite his preference for smaller gatherings. This seems to have been a pivotal moment in their relationship, and he memorialised it in his longest (and unfinished) poem "The Dance".<ref>Bradford 2005, p. 199.</ref> Around this time, also at her prompting, Larkin learnt to drive and bought a car – his first, a [[Singer Gazelle]].<ref>''Letters to Monica'', p. 326.</ref> Meanwhile, Monica Jones, whose parents had died in 1959, bought a holiday cottage in [[Haydon Bridge]], near [[Hexham]],<ref>Bradford 2005, pp. 181 & 193.</ref> which she and Larkin visited regularly.<ref>Motion 1993, p. 319.</ref><ref><!-- please don't remove this while dead links are being sorted - don't want to mess up the numbering! -->Blank reference</ref> His poem "Show Saturday" is a description of the 1973 [[Bellingham, Northumberland|Bellingham]] show in the North Tyne valley.<ref>Motion 1993, p. 437.</ref>

In 1964, following the publication of ''[[The Whitsun Weddings]]'', Larkin was the subject of an edition of the arts programme ''[[Monitor (UK TV series)|Monitor]]'', directed by [[Patrick Garland]].<ref>Down Cemetery Road, closing credits.</ref> The programme, which shows him being interviewed by fellow poet [[John Betjeman]] in a series of locations in and around [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]], allowed Larkin to play a significant part in the creation of his own public persona; one he would prefer his readers to imagine.<ref>Bradford 2005, p. 203.</ref>

In 1968, Larkin was offered the [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]], which he declined. Later in life he accepted the offer of being made a [[Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16736495|title=BBC News – Queen's honours: People who have turned them down named|work=[[BBC Online]]|access-date=12 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161126094501/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16736495|archive-date=26 November 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1976, the [[Hamburg]]-based [[Alfred Toepfer Foundation]] awarded Larkin its annual [[Shakespeare Prize]] in recognition of his life's work.

Larkin's role in the creation of Hull University's new Brynmor Jones Library had been important and demanding. Soon after the completion of the second and larger phase of construction in 1969,<ref>Bradford 2005, p. 217.</ref> he was able to redirect his energies. In October 1970, he started to work on compiling a new anthology, <!-- if changing the title of this book, please provide a citation -->''[[The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse]]'' (1973). He was awarded a Visiting Fellowship at [[All Souls College, Oxford]], for two academic terms, allowing him to consult Oxford's [[Bodleian Library]], a [[copyright library]]. While he was in Oxford he passed responsibility for the Library to his deputy, [[Brenda Moon]]. Larkin was a major contributor to the re-evaluation of the poetry of [[Thomas Hardy]], which, in comparison to his novels, had been overlooked; in Larkin's "idiosyncratic" and "controversial" anthology,<ref>Motion 1993, p. 407.</ref><ref name="Motion 1993, p. 431">Motion 1993, p. 431.</ref>  Hardy was the poet most generously represented. There were twenty-seven poems by Hardy, compared with only nine by [[T. S. Eliot]] (however, Eliot is most famous for long poems); the other poets most extensively represented were [[William Butler Yeats|W. B. Yeats]], [[W. H. Auden]] and [[Rudyard Kipling]]. Larkin included six of his own poems—the same number as for [[Rupert Brooke]]. In the process of compiling the volume he had been disappointed not to find more and better poems as evidence that the clamour over the [[Modernists]] had stifled the voices of traditionalists.<ref name="Motion 1993, p. 431" /> The most favourable responses to the anthology were those of Auden and John Betjeman, while the most hostile was that of [[Donald Davie]], who accused Larkin of "positive cynicism" and of encouraging "the perverse triumph of philistinism, the cult of the amateur ... [and] the weakest kind of Englishry". After an initial period of anxiety about the anthology's reception, Larkin enjoyed the clamour.<ref>Bowen 2008, p. 107.</ref>

[[File:Philip Larkin -house in Hull 1.jpg|right|thumb|105 Newland Park, [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]], was Larkin's home from 1974 to his death in 1985 (photo 2008).|alt=Larkin lived in a comfortable residential area in Hull at No.105, [[Newland Park]] in a detached house of red brick construction. Doors on the first floor at the front of the house open onto a small balcony. As seen in 2008 part of the walls at the front of the house are covered with a green climbing plant, but a round commemorative plaque is visible]]
In 1971, Larkin regained contact with his schoolfriend Colin Gunner, who had led a picaresque life.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gunner, Colin (Oral history) |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80010746 |access-date=2024-06-29 |website=Imperial War Museums |language=en}}</ref> Their subsequent correspondence has gained notoriety as Larkin expressed right-wing views and used racist language.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.hull.ac.uk/arc/collection/philiplarkin/colls.html
 |title=Papers of Philip Larkin (known as the Larkin Estate Collection)
 |publisher=Hull University
 |year=2008
 |access-date=6 May 2009
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090124122700/http://www.hull.ac.uk/arc/collection/philiplarkin/colls.html
 |archive-date=24 January 2009
|url-status=live
 }}</ref> In the period from 1973 to 1974, Larkin became an Honorary Fellow of [[St John's College, Oxford]], and was awarded [[honorary degree]]s by [[University of Warwick|Warwick]], [[University of St Andrews|St Andrews]] and [[University of Sussex|Sussex]] universities. In January 1974, Hull University informed Larkin that they were going to dispose of the building on Pearson Park in which he lived. Shortly afterwards he bought a detached two-storey 1950s house in [[Newland Park]] which was described by his university colleague John Kenyon as "an entirely middle-class backwater". Larkin, who moved into the house in June, thought the four-bedroom property "utterly undistinguished" and reflected, "I can't say it's the kind of dwelling that is eloquent of the nobility of the human spirit".<ref>Motion 1993, p. 440.</ref>

Shortly after splitting up with Maeve Brennan in August 1973, Larkin attended W. H. Auden's memorial service at [[Christ Church, Oxford]], with Monica Jones as his official partner.<ref>Motion 1993, p. 438.</ref> In March 1975, the relationship with Brennan restarted, and three weeks after this he initiated a secret affair with Betty Mackereth, who served as his secretary for 28 years, writing the long-undiscovered poem "We met at the end of the party" for her.<ref>{{cite web
 |first=Eric
 |last=McHenry
 |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2078368/
 |title=High Standards
 |work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]
 |date=10 February 2003
|access-date=6 May 2009
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090510103743/http://www.slate.com/id/2078368
 |archive-date=10 May 2009
|url-status=live
 }}</ref> Despite the logistical difficulties of having three relationships simultaneously, the situation continued until March 1978. From then on he and Jones were a monogamous couple.<ref>Bradford 2005, p. 245.</ref>

In 1976, Larkin was the guest of [[Roy Plomley]] on BBC's ''[[Desert Island Discs]]''. His choice of music included "[[Dallas Blues]]" by [[Louis Armstrong]], ''[[Spem in alium]]'' by [[Thomas Tallis]] and the [[Symphony No. 1 (Elgar)|Symphony No. 1 in A flat major]] by [[Edward Elgar]]. His favourite piece was "I'm Down in the Dumps" by [[Bessie Smith]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009n0l8|title=Philip Larkin, Desert Island Discs – BBC Radio 4|publisher=bbc.co.uk|access-date=6 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151230040821/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009n0l8|archive-date=30 December 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

In December 2010, as part of the commemorations of the 25th anniversary of Larkin's death, the BBC broadcast a programme entitled ''Philip Larkin and the Third Woman'' focusing on his affair with Mackereth in which she spoke for the first time about their relationship.  It included a reading of a newly discovered secret poem, ''Dear Jake'', and revealed that Mackereth was one of the inspirations for his writings.<ref>{{cite news
|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11909126
|title=Unpublished Philip Larkin poem found
|date=5 December 2010
|work=BBC News Online
|publisher=BBC
|access-date=7 December 2010
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207082858/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11909126
|archive-date=7 December 2010
|url-status=live
}}</ref>