Philip Larkin has had something of a rough ride since his biography was published posthumously in 1993. I remember sitting in the back of a car with a well-respected Australian churchman who was absolutely horrified when I admitted Larkin was my favourite poet. I felt like I’d been caught shoplifting. — read more

“You know why you hid in that ditch?” So begins the haunting conversation between Lieutenant Ronald Speirs and Private Albert Blithe in HBO’s Band of Brothers. Blithe quietly explains why, the night before, he had hidden himself rather than engaging the enemy. — read more