Product Description

The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller

'A joy to read and re-read - the perfect match of author and subject' Hugh Massingberd, 'Books of the Year', Spectator

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37877 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-06
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Mail on Sunday
'Funny, poignant and unusually well written, Wilson's biography
does the old boy proud.'

Lynn Barber, Daily Telegraph
'Betjeman is a poet who badly needs saving from his soppier fans,
and this Wilson has done.'

D.J. Taylor, Independent
'An A-grade demonstration of the point of Betjeman… and the area
of English life that he made his own.'

Customer Reviews

A model biography
AN Wilson succeeds where Bevis Hillier failed by producing a compact, balanced, but still affectionate portrait of Britain's favourite post war poet. Wilson is very good on the marital threesome, sympathetic to both Penelope and Elizabeth. He also deals well with Betjeman's guilt, religious angst and fear of death. Happily the book does not dwell on Betj's TV and radio work, which was always a distraction, but focuses instead, properly in my view, on his poetry and his life as a poet. You may disagree with Wilson's choice of Betjeman's 30 best poems, but he succeeds in catapulting the reader back to old laureate's work, which is surely a mark of a great biography. Add to that AN Wilson splendid prose, little asides and occasional barbs and you have a marvellous, absorbing read in prospect. Anyone even remotely interested in Betjeman should have this on their shelves.