Tom Courtney as Larkin

at Hull Truck Theatre on Saturday was every bit as good as you would expect. I think I ended up admiring the actor more than the poet, nevertheless.  Though the performance, drawn from letters and poems, did reveal that there was more to Larkin than grumpiness and melancholia. As with most writers, the advice ‘never trust the teller, trust the tale’ holds good.  If the poem speaks to you, then the character or biography of the poet isn’t really important except as a side interest.