Mr Larkin's Awkward Day

[2] In 1957 Philip Larkin's friend Robert Conquest, of the group known as The Movement, played a practical joke on him.

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His assistant advises him that an Inspector Clough has turned up and Larkin freezes when the policeman says that he is very interested in his literary tastes.

Larkin begins to defend himself until it transpires that the men have crossed wires—one fears he is being quizzed about purchasing dubious magazines, the other thinks he is having a friendly chat about literature.

Finally, Larkin prises himself free from the Inspector to dash off to a meeting with his solicitors, who ask him what journals he has been buying.