Betjeman: A Life (Hardcover)

by A. N. Wilson (Author)
Key Phrases: John Betjeman, Cloth Fair, Evelyn Waugh (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Certainly Britain's most popular poet since Kipling, John Betjeman (1906–1984) began as the shy son of a London manufacturer, got kicked out of Oxford for not taking his studies seriously and ended up as poet laureate (1972–1984). He also became a celebrity, known across the U.K. for hosting TV programs about travel and architecture, for his campaigns to preserve Victorian buildings and for Summoned by Bells (1960), his bestselling verse account of his childhood and youth. The English admired his unassuming comic persona, his devotion to the Anglican Church, his loyalty (somehow simultaneous, and real) to both aristocrats and Middle England, and his stand on behalf of Victorian values, which modern life seemed to have eroded. This enthusiastic, always readable biography from the prolific English critic Wilson (After the Victorians) follows Betjeman's rise to public acclaim, his sometimes surprising friends and acquaintances (Lord Alfred Douglas, Evelyn Waugh), and his frequently frustrating private affairs: unwilling to either divorce or live with his wife, Betjeman spent decades with a devoted younger mistress. With his sources in hymns and English music-hall comedy, his great causes (Anglican services and Victorian churches) quintessentially, parochially English, Betjeman seems as unlikely an export as Marmite. Whatever American fans he has, however, will be well served by this compact life. 74 b&w illus. (Dec.)
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From Booklist
Though two and a half million copies of his Collected Poemshave been sold (a new U.S. paperback of it, including the autobiographical Summoned by Bells,1962, emerges in tandem with this book), John Betjeman (1906-84) is virtually unknown in America. But BBC programs on English architecture aren't big here, and Betjeman owed his enormous home fame to making so many of those so well. Perhaps his TV-fostered popularity fueled his poetry sales; Wilson discloses nothing to warrant thinking so. He says Betjeman's mastery of formal verse, evocation of particular places in Britain, and use of common, though personal, experiences as the matter of his poetry account for its popularity. But Wilson spends relatively little time arguing the poetry's merits. Instead he traces the man's many intense relationships--not often enough sexual, he said late in life--with women and men of remarkable energy, talent, and station (his mistress was lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret, who herself became a friend). A splendid, poignant biography, despite being peppered with references and assumptions many Americans won't get. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (November 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374111987
• ISBN-13: 978-0374111984
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #794,580 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)