Maeve Brennan, Philip Larkin's ex-lover and for 18 years one of his two dearest women friends, has died at the age of 73, it was announced yesterday.

Though she was hurt to discover after the poet's death in 1985 that at one stage she had been one of three women in his life, she became one of the most effective champions of his reputation.

The final year of her life was triumphantly productive.

It saw publication of her praised, sell-out memoir The Philip Larkin I Knew and interviews for a Channel 4 documentary to be shown on June 22.

She had seen a preview of Love Again, a BBC2 play scheduled for July 26, based on the title of a poem which demonstrated Larkin's intense feeling for her.

Someone else feeling her breasts ...
Someone else drowned in that lash-wide stare,
And me supposed to be ignorant,
Or find it funny, or not to care

· Ms Brennan died in Hull Royal Infirmary on Tuesday.