Monica Jones - Ruth Bowman

Ruth Bowman

Ruth Bowman was a schoolgirl living in Wellington when Larkin moved there in 1943 to become librarian at the public library. They met the following year when she came into the library. In time their relationship became romantic and in 1948 they became engaged. The engagement was broken in 1950, shortly before Larkin moved to Northern Ireland. These events are referred to sardonically in the poem "Wild Oats", written in the early 1960s.