Philip Larkin was never treated with kid gloves by Britain’s media. Only last year, in a review of a biography of the poor sod, the Evening Standard described him as “widely viewed not just as racist, misogynist, porn-addled, devious in love, alcoholic, foul-mouthed and viciously right-wing, but also … dreary and twee with it” (even if they did add, “What’s not to like?”) The Scotsman summarised him, 10 years earlier, thus: “Misogynist, racist, loser – and poet”, before adding that he was also “a miserable old git” and a “creep of the first order”. It’s a particularly British way of memorialising somebody who, by creative rights at least, should be considered one of our national treasures.
Related: Philip Larkin honoured with Westminster Abbey memorial
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