Larkinland

Arriving in 1950s Hull, Arthur Merryweather finds himself lodging with the landlady from hell, and falling in love with fellow librarian Niamh O'Leary. But just as their love threatens to bloom, the mystery of Mr Bleaney, the enigmatic insurance salesman who rented his room before him, threatens to pull the poet into disaster and cast him into the criminal hinterland of 'fish town', that sublimely banal Larkinland 'beached on the mudflats at the end of the railway line, like a brick seal with a woodbine in its gob'. Hilarious, hugely enjoyable and deeply moving, Larkinland is the most compelling love story, mystery and biographical novel you are likely to read. A pitch-perfect realisation of Larkin's poetic world, the author also cooks up his own set of moving misadventures, which reveal the loneliness, commonplaces, fears, lusts and hope we all must face. Drawing on meetings with the women in Larkin's life, Larkinland casts startlingly fresh light on one of Britain's greatest ever poets.

Author of seven previous novels, including The Season Ticket, Give Us This Day and Mr McCool, Jonathan Tulloch's work has been filmed, staged, Radio 4 serialised and translated into five languages. He has won the Betty Trask Prize and The JB Priestley Award. He contributes to the 'Nature Notebook' in The Times, and writes a weekly column in the second oldest weekly magazine in the English language. Founder of The Sheltering Tree, a Middlesbrough writing group for writers recovering from addiction, he also plays in the ceilidh band, Herd on the Hill.