Instead of a Present

Alan Bennett contributes to a festschrift for Philip Larkin

My first thought was that this whole enterprise is definitely incongruous. A birthday party for Philip Larkin is like treating Simone Weil to a candlelit dinner for two at a restaurant of her choice. Or sending Proust flowers. No. A volume of this sort is simply a sharp nudge in the direction of the grave; and that is a road, God knows, along which he needs no nudging.

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Vol. 4 No. 7 · 15 April 1982 » » Instead of a Present (print version)
page 7 | 2066 words