3 November 2005
Thursday 3 November 2005 21:30-22:00 (Radio 3)
Matthew Sweet unlocks the impact and intimate history of Philip Larkin's 'The Whitsun Weddings' as part of Night Waves' Landmark series.
Programme details
Night Waves; Landmarks celebrates classic works of art, literature and performance, described by practitioners rather than critics. In tonight's programme Matthew Sweet talks to the Poet Laureate Andrew Motion and the novelist and critic David Lodge about Philip Larkin's poem The Whitsun Weddings.
Larkin's poem was published in 1964 but was first heard five years earlier here on Radio 3 (in the days of the Third Programme) in 1959. It had its origins in a train journey taken by Larkin from Hull to London where, at every station, wedding parties gathered to see off honeymoon couples.
The collection sold 7000 copies in its first year, has never been out of print and is now a favourite 'A' Level text. Matthew Sweet discusses the enduring popularity of the poem and the way in which Larkin describes England and an English sensibility, turning his voice as Andrew Motion says into 'one of the means by which his country recognised itself'.
Night Waves; Landmarks, this Thursday night at 9.30, presented by Matthew Sweet here on BBC Radio 3.
Additional Information:
The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin is published by Faber and Faber.
