‘Kipling said somewhere that when you can do one thing really well, then do something else. Oscar Wilde said that only mediocrities develop. I just don’t know. I don’t think I want to change: just to become better at what I am.’

Ian Hamilton talks to Philip Larkin.

‘Elsie, who is a medium, clairvoyant and faith-healer, / Believes that my mother came to me / From the other side and used a spiritual force / To keep me warm.’

Poetry by W. G. Shepherd.