A British island without any cars? The curious isle beloved by Philip Larkin where cycling is the only mode of transportation

You know a place has uplifting properties if even the most torpor-drenched poet of the 20th century found it a tonic. “We are back for 14 days in this jewel of the Channel” wrote Philip Larkin to his friend, the art historian Judy Egerton in 1963.

Larkin was a regular visitor to the bijou Channel Island of Sark with his lover Monica Jones. He adored the absence of noise and the gentle thrill of being here in one of the smallest, most unhurried islands in the British Isles.

But the writer…