See Larkin on the Beeb

Tony you know you love us all really and where would you be without us especially me!! Maybe you better not answer that...

I thought Roger McGough was brilliant as Larkin's mum.

It's on in 15 minutes! Thanks for reminding me - you're a star!

*switches on* Thanks Bruce.

It made me wonder even more about how much of the nasty racist right-wingery was a put up job - a persona he created to make others keep their distance.

Yes, I saw that, and quite enjoyed it, though I've always had a blind spot with Larkin, even before I found out that he was a racist and a git. Being a drama, it did slightly falsify things, I thought. It made it seem that Larkin stopped writing, had Monica move in with him, and died, all in a short space of time. But these events took place over many years. I did sympathise with his determination to live on his own for the sake of his writing; and I'm sure that the reason he decided eventually to live with Monica was that he realized he wasn't going to write again. When I was married I managed little writing. Now I live alone and am determined to keep it that way so that I can write. But it's a shame that for some of us it has to be one or the other. I'd prefer to live with someone, really, but I'm not going to let it happen. I deeply admire people, women most of all, who bring up a family and write at the same time. d.beswetherick.

I wrote most prolifically when i was married. Mind you it was all stab stuff.

It's the commuting, not the marriage, that stops me writing - oh, and looking after you lot!

I watched Apollo 13. Much better.