Product Description

Collected Poems made publishing history when it first appeared, and has now sold more than two million copies, to an ever-growing readership. This newly expanded edition includes Betjeman’s verse autobiography, Summoned by Bells. With a new Introduction by Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, Collected Poems is the definitive Betjeman companion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12431 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Review
'A true poet who extends experience' (Margaret Lane )

‘John Betjeman has succeeded . . . in narrowing the gulf between poetry and the public . . . he has established a personal regency over all contemporary taste’ (The Times )

'It would be difficult - in my opinion impossible - to point to a contemporary poet of greater originality or more genuine depth of feeling' (Anthony Powell )

About the Author

John Betjeman was born in London on 28 August 1906. He was educated at Marlborough and Magdalen College, Oxford. In 1931 his first book of poems, 'Mount Zion', was published by an old Oxford friend, Edward James. His second book was 'Ghastly Good Taste', a commentary on architecture, published in 1934. He was knighted in 1969 and was appointed Poet Laureate in 1972. John Betjeman died on 19 May 1984 at his home in Trebetherick, Cornwall, and was buried at the nearby church of St Enodoc.

Customer Reviews

Wish I'd read him earlier
This was my first introduction to JB. I raced through the entire book in about 2 days and have re-read my favourites many times over since then.

Maybe it's because his views coincide with my own in so many ways, maybe the language he uses, maybe I'm just nostalgic for the rose-tinted past, but something in his writing is absolutely captivating.

I recently saw Joanna Lumley reading one of his poems (Myfanwy) on TV. It could have been written for her, and has become my favourite, perhaps taking me back to my own days at boarding school.

For me, that's the thing about Betjeman - he's so accessible to someone like me who doesn't know much about poetry that his writing allows me to feel as though I'm in the middle of it all, looking around me.

I know this review will be of little use to Betjeman aficionados, but perhaps it may serve as an encouragement for anyone who is not familiar with him to make an effort to get to know him better. It's a journey well worth taking (even if, like I do, you live not a million miles away from Slough).

I have loved this book to death. Literaly.
I was introduced to the original Collected Poems by my college room-mate circa 1960, and have loved the poems ever since. Several of them I learned by heart, and can generaly quote to this day. So much so that my son (now living on a different continent from me) must have heard the original so often, he brought to my attention the misquoting of 'Slough' in a recent International Herald Tribune article. My original paperback copy is now falling apart, and how can I resist getting a new one?

America needs a Betjeman
A preservationist in (usually) the best sense--in architecture, poetry forms, landscapes, humour, the heart--Sir John Betjeman inspired a large following in the UK and maybe 2-3 in the USA. More 'verse' than 'poetry' as he characteristically self-effacingly called the contents of this volume, his work still holds a lot of charm and power. 'Middlesex' perhaps encapsualtes him best...