The Society is looking forward to the Centenary celebrations next year, but we wanted to mark what would have been Larkin's 99th birthday this year by reading his poems. The readings have been recorded and submitted by PLS society members, trustees, honorary vice presidents and podcast listeners from across the world. Larkin was famously reluctant to read his poems in public, but we hope listeners enjoy hearing his words being read out loud. Please raise a glass and join us with our birthday celebrations! This is the second of two parts.
Poems and readers featured as follows.
The Challenges of Life
Reasons for Attendance - Alex Howard
Continuing to Live - Adam Crawford
Reference Back - Philip Watts
Sad Steps - Richard Johnston
Home is So Sad - Carmel Morgan
The Darker Side of Life
Faith Healing - Robert Johnson
A Study of Reading Habits - Tim Holmes
Aubade – Roy Evans
Love and Compassion
An April Sunday - Sue Mendus
The Mower – Maureen Docherty
Places Loved Ones - Rich Tuner
The Old Fools - Michael Farman
At Grass - Julian Wild
Experience
Long Sight in Age - Clarissa Hard
Started to Say - Martin Locock
I Remember I Remember - Nigel Mc Bride
Wild Oats - Wes Finch
Dockery and Son - Jim Moliski
Celebration
To the Sea - Daniel Gallimore
The Trees - Philip Watts
High Windows - Tony de Kok
Here - Rosie Millard
1952-1977 - Chris Sewart
Broadcast - Charlie Connolly
The Mower - Belinda Garry
Please also have a listen to Charlie Connolly's wonderful podcast Coastal Stories and Philip Watts's fascinating work athttps://elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk/. Thank you to Rob White and the team at Retford Library for contributing the video reading of Places, Loved Ones that we have featured on our Twitter account. You can also find more readings of Larkin's poetry by Julian Wild on YouTube.
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/