QUOTE:
He wore an orthopedic shoe, looked like Patrick Swayze and worked in John Menzies.

I will be checking all these facts, Harri. Well, looking at Wikipedia so you may not be found out

QUOTE:
He was librarian at Hull Uni, and now the library there is named after him

ant has now used my only knowledge of him

Bored Of Discipline wrote:

QUOTE:
I am studying to be a teacher therefore I am more or less retiring

Whoah! I think you may be in for a bit of an awakening there.

Wyatt Earp wrote:

QUOTE:
Toro De France wrote:

QUOTE:
He liked old jazz, that didn't threaten his sensibilites in any way.

That's more or less my position, to be honest. Humph and that. Jazz for people who don't like jazz. Like me.

And me. To quote Jill Swinburne from The Beiderbecke Affair, there are three kinds of jazz; Hot, Cool, and What Time Does The Tune Start?

Wyatt Earp wrote:

QUOTE:
Listen pal, can you stop saying LOL? At your own jokes? That you haven't even made?

i'm not saying it, am i?
LOL

His works bored me to tears at school along with the poetry of Thomas Hardy in a double whammy of unending misery and unfulfilled desires (theirs).

I bought his Collected Poems recently and with the scales of "being forced to do it at A-Level and so finding it awful" having fallen from my eyes, it's rather choice. Toads in particular being a favourite.

Most important stuff covered here already.

His Dad was a Nazi.

He went to Oxford during wartime.

Had a brief phase in his twenties as a sort of ersatz romantic poet, then reacted against that very strongly - the stuff he wrote in the 50s (when beginning to make his name) was seen at the time as outrageously sparse and conversational.

Misanthropic old bastard who, deep down, felt everyone's pain (which is why his poetry is so perfectly balanced between compassionate melancholy and dispassionate cynicism). Except possibly non-white people, whom he loathed. Unless they played non-modern jazz and didn't live next door to him.

Terrified of commitment, but a horny old dog - an unhappy combination pre-sexual revolution, and then, post-sexuial revolution, for a bald, plain, middle-aged man with few social skills. Didn't do too badly though. Long-term non-relationship with a woman called Monica Jones, the key woman in his life. Check out the tape recording of them duetting on his "kick out the niggers" song.

Sat in his house alone smoking and drinking every night, until he died.

Toads in particular being a favourite.

Mine too. I once sent a copy of it (along with a box of cookies) to a very attractive print-rep who foolishly confessed to me that her job was getting her down. She never looked at me in quite the same way afterwards. I think she ate the cookies though.

Is he related to Barry Larkin? Because if so, I may be able to contribute to this thread, but based on Taylor's thread, I suspect he probably wasn't related to him. Barry Larkin is black.

Not related to Barry Larkin, unfortunately (for Philip, not Barry).

Taylor nails it, again.

If I wasn't in awe of his talent, I'd hate it when it does that.

His book about Jazz was in my local Oxfam shop window last weekend.

QUOTE:
Not related to Barry Larkin, unfortunately (for Philip, not Barry).

But wouldn't it be remarkable if he were related to Barry Larkin of the Cincinnati Larkins.

His poetry is perfick.

Har har.

QUOTE:
Sat in his house alone smoking and drinking every night, until he died.

And sadly pre-dated OTF, in that respect.

Got passed over for poet laureate in the early 80s. Ted Hughes got it. I remember my Mum being really annoyed at this.

First public library job was in Wellington, Shropshire. First University library job was in Leicester. I believe he lived on London Road.

Well, according to wikipedia I was wrong - he wasn't passed over for poet laureate. Instead he declined it. That's certainly not how I remember it. Maybe the fact that he declined it only came out later.