THE PLS COMMITTEE

Chairman - Edwin A. Dawes: former Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Hull and, for a record period of eleven years, Chairman of the Library Committee, during which time he worked closely with Philip Larkin. He is now Professor Emeritus. As a friend and colleague of Philip Larkin, he was honoured to accept the invitation to chair the Larkin Society on its foundation in 1995.

Deputy Chairman - Jean Hartley: with her then husband George, started the literary magazine Listen (1954) and The Marvell Press (1955), publishers of Larkin's The Less Deceived (1955). She published her autobiography Philip Larkin, The Marvell Press and Me in 1989, and followed this in 1995 with Philip Larkin's Hull and East Yorkshire. Jean has been a member of the Society's committee since its inception.

General Secretary - Andrew Eastwood: works as a Senior Practitioner Educational Psychologist in Hull. He discovered The Philip Larkin Society in 1999, through a mutual school friend of the late Maeve Brennan. Andrew volunteered at the 2005 AGM to become the Society's Membership Secretary, and subsequently agreed to become the General Secretary.

Treasurer - Jacqueline Sewell

Events Secretary - Carole Collison

Literary Adviser & Co-Editor About Larkin - James Booth: has published two books on Philip Larkin: Philip Larkin: Writer (Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991) and Philip Larkin: The Poet's Plight (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). He has also edited Larkin's early girls'-school stories and poems as Trouble at Willow Gables and Other Fictions (Faber, 2002), and a volume of critical essays, New Larkins for Old (Macmillan 2000), arising from the first Hull International Conference on the Work of Philip Larkin mounted by the Society in 1997. He is currently head of The Department of English at the University of Hull.

Co-Editor About Larkin - Janet Brennan

External Liaison - Don Lee: a former Local Government officer, and tutor with the The Worker's Educational Association (W.E.A.), Don first became aware of Larkin's work when he found a copy of Listen Records' The Whitsun Weddings LP whilst browsing through the railway records section of Rare Records, a specialist shop in Manchester. On the formation of The Philip Larkin Society, Don began to develop the concept of the Society's Birthday Walks. Current projects are based in Cottingham, Warwick and Coventry.

Jazz Consultant - John White

Education Officer (& temporary Merchandising Officer) - Belinda Hakes: head of English at Wyke Sixth-Form College, Hull. She took over the editorship of About Larkin following Maeve Brennan's death in 2003 and oversaw issues 17 - 21. She organises the Society's annual spring study day on Larkin's work, designed for sixth-formers.