Philip Larkin: Masterspy

Philip Larkin: Masterspy

Tasked by Margaret Thatcher with carrying out an audacious piece of international espionage that could alter the course of the Cold War, poet Philip Larkin must steal a top secret document from the handbag of Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev’s wife, Raisa. But can the Hermit of Hull – ageing, infirm and almost pathologically grumpy – really turn James Bond and complete his dangerous mission?

“You’re asking me, a knackered old poet, to commit espionage against the wife of a world leader!
Look at me – I’m 63, half-deaf, and I can hardly even get up the stairs
without needing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
I’m Philip Larkin. I’m the Archbishop of Negativity. It’s sort of my thing.”