Monica Jones - Patsy Strang

Patsy Strang

Larkin knew Patricia Avis Strang Murphy (1928–1977) during the 1950s, and wrote her his first love letters. At the time, she was married to Colin Strang, a friend of Larkin's and a lecturer in the Philosophy Department at Queen's University, Belfast, where Larkin was Under-Librarian. She became pregnant by Larkin, but miscarried. As Patricia Avis, she is the author of Playing the Harlot (1996, Virago), a roman à clef; the character of Rollo Jute is thought to have been inspired by Larkin.

Strang discovered and read some of Larkin's sexual diaries. It is possible that Larkin's poem "Reference Back", from the collection The Whitsun Weddings, addresses Patsy Strang. Strang would later marry the poet Richard Murphy.