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Monica Jones, Philip Larkin and Me

By: John Sutherland
Narrated by: Richard Burnip, John Sutherland
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Summary

Monica Jones was Philip Larkin's partner for more than four decades and was arguably the most important woman in his life. She was cruelly immortalised as Margaret Peel in Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim and widely vilified for destroying Larkin's diaries and works in progress after his death.

She was opinionated and outspoken, widely disliked by his friends and Philip himself was routinely unfaithful to her. But Monica Jones was also a brilliant academic and an inspiring teacher in her own right. She wrote more than 2,000 letters to Larkin, and he in turn poured out his heart to her.

In this revealing biography, John Sutherland explores the question: who was the real Monica? The calm and collected friend and teacher? The witty conversationalist and inspirational lecturer? Or the private Monica, writing desperate, sometimes furious, occasionally libellous, drunken letters to the only man, to the absent man, whom she could love?

Was Monica's life—one of total sacrifice to a great poet—worthwhile? Through his careful reading of Monica's never-before-seen letters, and his own recollections, John Sutherland shows us a new side to Larkin's story and allows Monica to finally step out from behind the poet's shadow.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 John Sutherland (P)2021 Orion Publishing Group
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A Minor character in literary history

I would recommend getting this for the parts read by the author which offer an emotional and informative plea for a reassessment of Monica Jones. However once the biography itself gets going it is hard to maintain interest as Monica is in herself of little interest except for the most ardent of Philip Larkin enthusiasts. As a biography it is rather by-the-numbers and somewhat cliched.

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A must for any Larkin enthusiast

Bravo, Mr. Sutherland. One i shall read again in my lifetime several times over. Thank you.

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