Product Description

This biography takes the reader from Betjeman’s troubled childhood in north London, through his blossoming at Oxford; a gay fling with W. H. Auden; a clandestine marriage to a field marshal’s daughter; pranks as a film critic; wartime service and probable espionage in Ireland, to the glory days of his later years when his Collected Poems became a runaway bestseller. This book is a distillation of Bevis Hillier’s three-volume biography, authorized by Betjeman himself.

(20060619)

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #196535 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 608 pages

Review
'The book is crammed with very funny stories, but Hillier never loses sight of the doubts and insecurities that assailed Betjeman and made him a far more complex man than his public persona suggested.' Peter Parker, Daily Telegraph 'A classic in the making, with every page evocative of Betjeman's wistful humour. It is a book to be read slowly for fear of coming too fast to the end.' Jad Adams, Guardian 'There was a wealth of feeling and imagination in his life, and in Hillier's account it is getting the record it deserves.' John Gross, Sunday Telegraph 'Hillier has an insatiable, higgledy-piggledy appetite for the humorous and eccentric.' Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday " Fine and revealing biography" -- THE TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT 20030411

Review

‘[Hillier] has unearthed a wealth of detail and anecdote.’

(Glasgow Herald 20041128)

'Hillier's enthralling, many-voiced biography is an awesome achievement. But it is no more than Betjeman's due' (John Carey, Sunday Times 20041128)

'Fascinating' (Humphrey Carpenter, Sunday Times 20041113)

'Sharply perceptive ... compelling ... A biography this good abolishes time in its own way, and triumphantly ensures Betjeman's survival' (Peter Conrad, Observer 20041113)

'A mosaic in which the true face of the man and his times is revealed' (Mail on Sunday 20041113)

‘The chubbiest, juiciest book of the year' (Barry Humphries, Daily Telegraph 20041113)

‘Strikes just the right note.’ (Telegraph 20041113)

'An awe-inspiring piece of scholarship ... Betjeman has had the best and most sympathetic biographer he could have wished for' (Artemis Cooper, Evening Standard 20041113)

'A triumph' (Spectator 20041113)

'Hilarious and very poignant' (Duncan Fallowell, Express 20060624)

‘A mosaic in which the true face of the man and his time is revealed’ (Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday 20060701)

‘A pleasure to read and use.’ (Evening Standard 20060801)

‘Immensely detailed, intelligent, generous, sympathetic, and often entertaining’ (Allan Massie, Literary Review 20060819)

‘[Hillier] has unearthed a wealth of detail and anecdote’

(Glasgow Herald 20060819)

‘A fine portrait of a vulnerable, acerbic man with a teddy.’

 

(BBC History 20060827)

‘John Betjeman remains extremely popular’

(BBC History 20060827)

'A stupendous work in many ways’

(Daily Telegraph )

‘Bevis Hillier’s fine biography joins the jubilations’

 

(The Times/Books )

‘Where anyone interested in Betjeman will dig happily away’

(Sunday Telegraph/Seven )

‘Hillier’s [biography] has a wealth of often-hilarious detail that Wilson never touches on’

(Tim Martin, Daily Telegraph )

Daily Telegraph
"The book is crammed with very funny stories."

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Customer Reviews

A monumental work
Bevis Hillier's second volume of his Betjeman biography is a massive, extremely detailed work which will appeal to the same audience that enjoyed the first volume, Young Betjeman. The book follows JB's life and career from the early days of his marriage to Penelope Chetwode in the early thirties to the massive success of his "Collected Poems" in the late fifties.
Don't expect any opinions on Betjeman's poetry, except for excerpts from contemporary reviews. This is a book about his life, not his work. And what a life! At the start of his career, working as a film critic on the Evening Standard, his colleagues included Robert Bruce Lockhart (the celebrated/notorious "British Agent"), Malcolm Muggeridge and Osbert Lancaster, who became his lifelong friend. He was an unabashed social climber starting from his days at Oxford, and managed to charm his way into the very top echelons of British and Irish society.
Bevis Hillier has a clear, neutral and unobtrusive writing style that makes for easy reading. Having said that, this is a non-fiction book and not a "page-turner". It took several weeks of bed time reading and the wealth of detail would be too much to take in over a short period. It would also spoil the enjoyment of the book not to take time to mull over some of the episodes.
There are several hundred notes at the end of the book, almost all of them attributions, but with the occasional anecdote. After using a second bookmark for a little while, I decided to just read the book. Having finished it, I then read through the more interesting notes. Among these was the information that Lady Elizabeth Cavendish (Betjeman's long-time companion), along with Arthur Calder-Marshall (who?), was the only person who refused to provide any help whatsoever with the book.
This book, along with the preceding volume and the third, expected later this year, took twenty-five years to assemble. Many of the interviewees are now deceased. We can be thankful that Bevis Hillier had the tenacity to gather this information, and the skill to put it together with such grace.

Oh, I say, what a superb biography
John Betjeman: national treasure, cuddly figure of fun, telly star, champion of suburbia and Victorian architecture, best selling poet.

Yes, he was all these things and, as Bevis Hillier's superb biography demonstrates, more.

Whilst all these positive aspects of Betjeman's personality are illuminated, he is not afraid to explore the man's darker side - his fondness for scatological humour, his practical joking, his belittling of his son, tantamount to bullying. Betjeman did not have a happy relationship with his father, so this may be some kind of revenge for what he himself had to suffer.

Betjeman was a performer in life as well as on the screen. He was always putting on an act, larking around, camping it up. One of his contemporaries remarked that this play acting could be seen as a manifestation of a lack of self-confidence - Betjeman was always sensitive to adverse criticism about his poetry. It is interesting that the television producer Jonathan Stedall opines that the films he made with Betjeman towards the end of the poet's life revealed the true essence of the man as he was no longer putting on an act.

Betjeman's work for television is of a high quality, but unfortunately, of a small quantity, which is a pity as he was a natural performer adept at delivering impromptu commentary.

Betjeman drifted through a number of jobs in the early part of his life, most of which he came to despise and he never stuck at any of them for more than a few years.

His warmth and generousity were demonstrated by the success of his Australian and USA tours where his personality and charm won many friends and admirers.

Hillier organises his material well and makes cross references to other chapters as the need arises. I finished the book feeling that I knew Sir John Betjeman really well.

This edition is a distillation of Bevis Hillier's three volume biography.