Synopsis
Erudite and entertaining in equal measure, Somewhere Becoming Rain is a love letter from the much-loved writer Clive James to one of the world’s most cherished poets: Philip Larkin.
'This is the finest critic of his generation on the best poet of his lifetime' – The Times
Clive James was a life-long admirer of the work of Philip Larkin. Somewhere Becoming Rain...
Details
03 October 2019160 pages
9781529028829Imprint: Picador
Reviews
Few contemporary critics display the passionate commitment to the idea of poetry, and to the idea of poetry's centrality to civilized life, that James doesJohn Banville, New York Review of Books
To read a major critic on a major poet is one of the great pleasures. Clive James’s passion for the work of Philip Larkin, his intense scrutiny which reveals an extraordinary empathy makes Somewhere Becoming Rain: Collected Writings on Philip Larkin an outstanding book.Melvyn Bragg, New Statesman, Books of the Year 2019
One of the most important and influential writers of our timeBryan Appleyard, Sunday Times
In Somewhere Becoming Rain, Clive James’s collected essays on the poetry of Philip Larkin, the brilliance of James’s analysis, his clear-sighted view of Larkin’s solitude and humanity, and the fragile friendship between the two recorded in the book’s final pages, provide a monument to human connection and isolation together. It’s a perfect example of the “almost instinct” Larkin managed to prove “almost true” (hedging his bets to the end) – that what will survive of us is love.Andrew Hunter Murray, Guardian
