Two of a kind: Monica Jones proved Philip Larkin s equal for racism and misogyny spectator.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from spectator.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
According to one of Philip Larkin’s most famous poems, sexual intercourse began in 1963 which was, he noted, ‘rather late for me’.
As with much else in Larkin’s life however, this was not entirely truthful. Because by 1963 he had been enjoying sex for a good 18 years, with many, many women.
He may have been a late starter he was a virgin until he was 23 but, once under way, the man who was to become one of our most celebrated poets adopted a sexual template of juggling two or three women throughout his life.
His two most enduring relationships, with fellow librarian Maeve Brennan, in Hull, and English lecturer Monica Jones, in Leicester, lasted longer than many marriages (although he also betrayed them both with a third long-term lover, his secretary, Betty Mackereth).