I Was Philip Larkin’s Magician

RADIO 4, 4.00PM

This programme isn’t really about poet Philip Larkin, but someone less famous and no less interesting: the polymath Edwin Dawes, a friend of Larkin’s and his contemporary at Hull University, where Dawes was head of biochemistry as well as a self-taught magician. The story of Dawes’s unusual life – which includes surprising biochemistry wartime high jinks – is told with wit by Dawes himself and producer Andrew Mcgibbon, who emphasises the strong links between science and magic.