A Girl in Winter

First edition (UK)

A Girl in Winter is a novel by Philip Larkin, first published in 1947 by Faber and Faber.^[1] It was published in the USA in 1962 by St Martin's Press.^[2]

Plot

The main character in the novel (the "girl" of the title) is Katherine Lind, a library assistant. The action is condensed into a twelve-hour period in which she has to leave work to escort a colleague who has been taken ill. The incident results indirectly in her realisation that she no longer cares for Robin, an old love interest she had as a teenager.

Larkin himself stated that he had originally intended to write further novels, but he published no more fiction after A Girl in Winter, possibly because of a shortage of material on which to draw for inspiration.^[3] John Osborne called it "the most underestimated work in the Larkin canon" and "a harbinger of greatness".^[4]

The book was adapted for radio and broadcast on BBC Radio Four in 2013,^[5] along with an adaptation of Larkin's first novel, Jill.

References

1. Carol Rumens, "Winter reads: A Girl in Winter by Philip Larkin", The Guardian, 20 December 2011. Accessed 22 November 2013
2. Joyce Carol Oates, "From the Stacks: “A Girl in Winter”", New Republic, 20 November 1976. Accessed 22 November 2013
3. Clive James, "Philip Larkin - Smaller and Clearer", New Statesman, 21 March 1975 Accessed 22 November 2013
4. Philip Larkin Society, "Reclaiming Ambiguity" by James L. Orwin, 2009. Archived January 24, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 22 November 2013
5. BBC Radio 4 - Classic Serial Accessed 22 November 2013