Handwritten letters by illustrious Coventry poet Philip Larkin discussing his declining health just a year before he died could fetch hundreds at auction after being found in a dusty attic. Larkin, who grew up in the city before reading English at St John's College, Oxford, penned the correspondence to his cousin during his 80s.

The notes display Larkin's characteristic wit as he complains how he is getting 'too fat and deaf'. Larkin also pokes fun at his adopted home of Hull in a postcard he sent of the city.

The fascinating letters were recently uncovered during a clear out of in a loft in Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham. They are expected to fetch hundreds of pounds when they go under the hammer at Richard Winterton Auctioneers in Lichfield, Staffordshire, on February 15.

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The letters to his cousin Vera Thorpe begin in 1977 and include one of the final Christmas cards Larkin would have sent postmarked December 17, 1984. Considered one of Britain's greatest post-war poets, Larkin died on December 2, 1985, after a battle with oesophageal cancer. He was 63.

Other correspondence includes a postcard sent to Vera, who lived in Lichfield, in August 1984 thanking her for a birthday card. The postcard is illustrated with a picture of Princes Dock in Hull as it was in 1887, with Larkin's caption 'Hull doesn't look like this nowadays, worse luck!'

He describes himself as 'alright but too fat and deaf' and confesses that his 'memory has mislaid your [married] name'. He asks 'Please let me have it and I will put it in my book,' – a request which was granted, according to the next communication.

In that letter dated October 9, 1984, also on headed notepaper, Larkin writes 'Thank you for your letter, letting me know your married name. It is nice to know there is at least one Larkin in Lichfield but perhaps there are more?'

Larkin continues 'While uncle Alfred was alive my mother and I used to visit him from time to time. I liked Lichfield but the streets seemed very narrow for the traffic. Perhaps they have changed."

The final correspondence is a Christmas card with an envelope postmarked December 17, 1984. He writes: 'Thank you for [the] Lichfield card. Afraid this isn't Hull, worse luck.'

Larkin was born in Coventry and grew up in Radford before his family moved to a large three-storey home close to Coventry Railway Station when he was five. After studying at Oxford, he worked in Hull as head librarian at the city's university and later moved there in 1955.

But he was known to mock the city, describing it as a 'hole' which 'smelled like fish' and had 'witless, crapulous people'. Ephemera valuer Robert French said: "Whilst tinged with a somewhat moribund air at times – unsurprising given Larkin’s typical preoccupation with mortality – the letters and cards are also peppered with self-deprecating wit and genuine affection for his relative.

"The repetition of ‘worst luck’ is interesting – perhaps it was a private joke between Larkin and Vera? In the letter dated October 9, 1984, Larkin adopts a rather wistful tone, discussing his memories of Lichfield and expressing his surprise at having lived in Hull for almost 30 years – ‘something I can hardly believe’, he says, adding ‘and am 62 – can’t believe that either’.

"He goes on to discuss his sister Catherine’s family, refers to his mother’s death some eight years prior and ends by asking for more information on Vera and ‘the rest of the family’." Mr French added: "It is poignant to think that at the time of this correspondence, Larkin’s own death was now fast approaching.

"The following year he began to suffer from oesophageal cancer, by June it was found to have spread and he died on December 2. Whilst writing those last communiques to Cousin Vera, could he have had a sense that he was coming to the end of his days?"

The lot includes a first edition of the book ‘Required Writing – Miscellaneous Pieces 1955-1982’ signed by another Larkin cousin, Edgar. An order of service for Larkin’s memorial at Westminster Abbey on February 14, 1986, and a ticket stub from the Lichfield Festival’s celebration of his life that July are also included in the sale.

The archive is estimated to sell for around £300 to £500 when it goes under the hammer at Lichfield Auction Centre. Larkin remains one of Britain's most popular poets although revelations about his personal life and opinions have caused controversy.

His compositions reflected the dreariness of post-war England and the unhappiness it caused. Uneasy with fame, Larkin rarely consented to interviews, working in libraries for much of his life, and is famously quoted saying 'deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth.'

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