"Letters Home" provides access to the last major archive of Larkin's writing that remains unpublished: the letters to his family members. These correspondences help narrate the story of how Larkin became the writer and man we know: to his father, Sydney, a 'conservative anarchist' and admirer of Hitler, who died relatively early in Larkin's life; to his timid, depressed mother Eva, who conversely lived long and whose later years were overshadowed by dementia; and to his sister Kitty, whose rare surviving correspondence with her brother offers an enigmatic glimpse into a complex and intimate relationship. Particularly, the years during which he and his sister looked after their mother shaped the writer we know so well: several poems written during that time are about her, and the mood of pain, gloom, and despair that characterizes his later poetry draws its strength from the experience of her long, lonely years of dementia. A striking element within the volume, however, is the joie de vivre he shows in the large number of witty and engaging sketches of himself and Eva, as 'Young Creature' and 'Old Creature', with which he enlivens his letters throughout the three decades of her widowhood. This significant edition, edited by James Booth, is a key study that completes the portrait of this most beloved English poet.