Dear Old Creature
after Larkin's drawings of himself and his mother ("old creature"), published in the Selected Letters and elsewhere
Sources:
"My mother is being quite nice, really: I don't mind her being here at all, really, at present." Larkin to Patsy Strang, July 23, 1952, Selected Letters, p. 187.
"While there I bought Mother—or made her buy—a little Bush radio set, which I was quite sorry to leave." Larkin to Monica Jones, August 11, 1951, Letters to Monica, p. 50.
"If one starts blaming one's parents, well, one would never stop!" Larkin to Monica Jones, December 15, 1954, Letters to Monica, p. 132.
"She has no interests or hobbies and spends the time thinking about next summer's thunder-storms, gas taps, electricity switches, dark clouds, & I don't know what." Larkin to Monica Jones, April 8, 1955, Letters to Monica, p. 149.
"Everyone should be forcibly transplanted to another continent from their family at the age of three." Larkin to Monica Jones, January 10, 1968, Letters to Monica, p. 383.
"They fuck you up, your mum and dad / They do not mean to but they do" Larkin, "This Be the Verse,"" widely available.
(Larkin's mother's letters have not been published; her words are my invention.)