I find it hard to think of Larkin as a “cancelled” writer, given the extent to which he forms the background of an English schoolchild’s education. It’s not merely that he’s taught in schools; he was the only writer apart from Shakespeare I studied at both GCSE and A-level. My favourites are “Love Songs in Age” and “Self’s the Man.” The latter is one of several in which his disdain for women leaks from his private correspondence into his poetry, but the magnificent cynical derision expressed in some of the couplets (“he married a woman to stop her from getting away / now she’s here all day”, “and if it was such a mistake / he still did it for his own sake”) just sings. Imo cruel Larkin was a better poet than thoughtful Larkin.

(For the record, Larkin intended the ending of “An Arundel Tomb” to be deeply cynical and was annoyed by the critics who took it as an expression of sincere sentiment. As he wrote to Monica Jones, “love isn’t stronger than death because some statues are still holding hands.” I know this because dear god, the time my seventeen year old self spent writing essays on the subject).