Imprint
- W&N
Biography: literary
The story of Philip Larkin's long-term partner Monica Jones based on her never-before-seen letters to the poet.
'A brilliant biography - John Sutherland has brought Monica Jones to life as she deserves.' Claire Tomalin
'Eye-opening... in this account [Monica Jones] comes alive.' The Sunday Times
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.
More books by John Sutherland
Praise for Monica Jones, Philip Larkin and Me: Her Life and Long Loves
-
A brilliant biography - John Sutherland has brought Monica Jones to life as she deserves. - Claire Tomalin
-
I couldn't put it down. Vivid and penetrating, it's a brilliant portrait of a confounding, complex woman which will be indispensable to anyone interested in Philip Larkin. The fact that John Sutherland knew Monica Jones enables him to bring not only his scholarship but his uniquely wry observation to his subject. It's a tremendous book. - Cressida Connolly
-
Eye-opening... in this account [Monica Jones] comes alive. - The Sunday Times
-
Who would have thought that the life of Monica Jones, an unpublished and under-promoted lecturer in the English department at University College, Leicester, would prove to be such a page-turner? We all knew that she was Philip Larkin's long-term lover, and we thought we knew that she was reactionary, racist, homophobic, awkward, hysterical and dowdy. How wrong we were, how wrong. John Sutherland has set up a counter-narrative that keeps us guessing, as he himself has been kept guessing by this strange woman whom in some ways he knew so well, and in other ways, as he speculates, not at all. This memoir is his tribute to Miss Jones, and he shows her to us in her powerful prime. It is a story as full of surprises as many a novel, and a story that only he could tell - NEW STATESMAN
-
Reading this book, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Larkin slowly destroyed Jones's life... Sutherland has written a bleak but convincing book... But Philip Larkin, Monica Jones and Me is also an essay in the banality of despair. Sutherland shows how a life can be ruined amid quite ordinary things like The Archers and cricket matches and outings to cathedral cities and English summer days. Ironically, this was something Larkin understood better and wrote about more feelingly than any English poet who has yet lived - THE TIMES
-
[Monica Jones, Philip Larkin and Me] has a compelling flow of strong feeling and a touching sense of intimate connection . . . But Sutherland and Jones were never intimate or confiding - which means that the darkest revelations of her correspondence seem all the more shocking, to him first, and now to us . . . Larkin had managed to live pretty much how he wanted all along. Sutherland's book adds substance to the story of these wants, and some detail to the prejudices that accompanied them, and in this and other respects it's valuable - THE SPECTATOR
John Sutherland
John Sutherland is Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London and a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology. He has published 20 books, edited 30 more and written many articles on a variety of publications. His most recent books are The Boy Who Loved Books: A Memoir (2007) and How to Read a Novel: A User's Guide (2006). He also writes a weekly column for the Guardian, and is a former Chairman of the Booker Prize.
Find a book you’ll love, get our Word Up newsletter
.png?auto=compress&w=150&h=60&fit=crop&fm=jpg)
.png?auto=compress&w=150&h=60&fit=crop&fm=jpg)
Hachette Australia acknowledges and pays our respects to the past, present and future Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuation of cultural, spiritual and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Our head office is located on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.
