Larkin's letter worth its weight in gold

YOUR WEEKLY ROUND-UP OF THE REGION'S LEADING AUCTIONEERS

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Sarah Potter, at Potters Auction Saleroom, with the Larkin letter that sold for £870

A LETTER written by the poet Philip Larkin to a University of Hull colleague just a few weeks before he died sold for more than its weight in gold when it went under the hammer in a North Lincolnshire auction.

The handwritten letter was sent to Marie Cooper, the secretary of the university Vice-Chancellor Sir William Taylor, on July 16, 1985 just four weeks after Larkin had undergone an operation for oesophageal cancer. That operation had revealed that the cancer had spread and was inoperable, although there was no hint of that in the letter.