Records of Monica Jones (born Margaret Monica Beal Jones)

Collection contains records of Monica Jones, Lecturer in English Literature at Leicester University, and life-long partner of Poet and Librarian Philip Arthur Larkin. Records include: letters received by Jones [U DMA/1], ephemeral material [U DMA/2], photographs [U DMA/3], and some of Larkin's surviving records [U DMA/4].

Margaret Monica Beal Jones (1922-2001)

Known as Monica, Jones was born in Llanelli, Wales in 1922. At the age of seven the family relocated to Stourport on Severn, Worcestershire. She attended Kidderminster High School for Girls, where she won a scholarship to study English at St Hugh's College, Oxford University. Jones graduated with a First Class Honours Degree and worked for a short time as a teacher before taking up an academic and lecturing post in the English Department at University College Leicester in 1946. She would work at Leicester for the rest of her career, retiring in 1981 on the grounds of ill health. In addition to a flat in Leicester, Jones owned a holiday cottage at Haydon Bridge near Hexham.

Jones was in a long-term relationship with the poet Philip Larkin, though the pair never married. They met in 1946 when Larkin started working in the University Library at Leicester and their relationship deepened in 1950, shortly before Larkin moved to Belfast to take up a post at Queen's University Library. Their relationship continued at distance, with the pair writing to each other, talking on the phone, meeting up on weekends, and taking holidays together, until Larkin's death in 1985. However, they would not live together until Jones' ill health forced a move from Leicester to Hull after 1981. Larkin left the majority of his estate to Jones, who he also appointed as one of his executors. She remained in Hull, living in a house purchased by Larkin on Newland Park, Hull, until her own death in 2001. In the years following Larkin's death, Jones became increasingly more reclusive.

In addition to being Larkin's sometime muse, Jones was further represented in fiction twice: once as the unflattering character of Margaret Peel in 'Lucky Jim' by Kingsley Amis; and a second time in Malcolm Bradbury's 'Eating People is Wrong'.

This collection is arranged into four as follows:

U DMA/1 - Letters sent to Monica Jones

U DMA/2 - Ephemera

U DMA/3 - Photographs

U DMA/4 - Records of Philip Arthur Larkin

Access will be granted to any accredited reader.

Please note that U DMA/1/1 is currently un-catalogued and is therefore closed to public access. In some cases a draft or box list may exist which may allow us to provide access to the material ahead of it being catalogued. If you are interested in this material please contact archives@hull.ac.uk clearly outlining your interest and timescales.

Estate of Monica Jones; Estate of Philip Larkin; various

Deposited by Monica Jones' executors, following her death in 2001. Upon receipt, much of the material was in poor condition and very disordered. The collection was appraised in 2011 and some material was discarded (further information available, please contact archives@hull.ac.uk). The collection was finally arranged and catalogued in 2022.

The Philip Larkin Archive [U DPL]

Photographic Archive of Philip Arthur Larkin [U DLV]

Photocopies of letters from Philip Larkin to Monica Jones, collated as part of Anthony Thwaite's research [U DX341]

Papers of Maeve Brennan [U DMB]

Books given to Monica Jones by Philip Larkin

Other repositories:

Correspondence between Monica Jones and Philip Larkin, Department of Western Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library [RefNo MS. 22131, also RefNo MSS. Eng. b. 2148, c. 7403-7448, c. 7553-7555]