Pretending to Be Me: Philp Larkin, a Portrait

by Tom Courtenay

Pretending to Be Me is an intimate, acerbic, and occasionally scurrilous show about the poet, jazz aficionado, and Hull University librarian Philip Larkin. Larkin has moved surrounded by packing cases, playing selections from his favourite jazz LPs, and making himself cups of tea, and later whiskies, he reflects wryly on writing and life. Hilarious and moving, the narrative shifts seamlessly between Larkin's outrageous wit and the poems, which Courtenay reads with powerful directness and simplicity. Philip Larkin, one of the foremost figures in 20th-Century English poetry, feared his epitaph would "They f*** you up, your mum and dad". This, and other familiar poems, including "An Arundel Tomb", "The Whitsun Weddings", and "High Windows". are included in Pretending to Be Me.

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First published April 21, 2005

About the author

Sir Thomas Daniel Courtenay (pronounced "Courtney"; born 25 February 1937) is an English actor who came to prominence in the early 1960s with a succession of critically-acclaimed films including The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), Billy Liar (1963) and Dr. Zhivago (1965). Since the mid-1960s he has been known primarily for his work in the theatre. Courtenay received a knighthood in February 2001 for forty years service to cinema and theatre. Tom Courtenay is the President of Hull City A.F.C.'s Official Supporters Club. In 1999 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Hull University.