Dr Sam Perry teaches English Literature at the University of Hull, where he is a member of the Philip Larkin Centre for Poetry & Creative Writing. He is the author of Chameleon Poet: R.S. Thomas and the Literary Tradition (Oxford University Press) and is currently working on a long- term project exploring the representation of children and childhood in modern poetry.

Other writers discussed/mentioned: WB Yeats/Ted Hughes/Edward Thomas/ RS Thomas/Seamus Heaney/ William Wordsworth/William Blake/ Thomas Hardy/ Dylan Thomas /Charles Dickens/JD Salinger/Virginia Woolf/Kingsley Amis/Sylvia Plath/Ann Thwaite

Larkin poems discussed: Sunny Prestatyn/ Essential Beauty/The Large Cool Store/ Mr Bleaney/Aubade/Home is So Sad/ Wild Oats/ Dockery and Son/Ignorance/Afternoons/An Arundel Tomb/ I Remember, I Remember/ This Be The Verse/High Windows

Other references: Jim Sutton’s letters to Philip Larkin/The art of Rene Magritte (1898-1967)/Larkin’s Doodles/Letters to Monica Ed. Anthony Thwaite (Faber 2011)/The Secret Garden - Francis Hodgson Burnett (Heinemann 1911)/The Image of Childhood- Peter Coveney (Penguin 1967)

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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