Yesterday we learnt that Philip Larkin is to be given a memorial in Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner. The stone will be unveiled on 2 December 2016, the 31st anniversary of his death.

The dean of Westminster, the Very Rev Dr John Hall, who made the decision, claimed that Larkin was ‘absolutely agnostic’–flying in the face of considerable evidence of his outright atheism. Questioned on the Radio 4 Today programme, Hall also downplayed the poet’s reputation for racism and misogyny, saying that Larkin’s beliefs were typical of his time, and that it was hard to tell whether they were deeply-held prejudices or mere sallies of wit.

Listening to Dr Hall, I was reminded of the medieval notion of Purgatory, a spiritual holding-zone where your sins could be burnt away over a set period of time. Larkin, it seems, has done his time; he’s cleaned up and ready for eternity.