Product Description

John Betjeman was by far the most popular poet of the twentieth century. His collected poems sold over two million copies. Television audiences loved his quirky evocations of landscape and architecture. As Poet Laureate, he became a national icon, but behind the public man were doubts and demons. For much of his fifty year marriage to Penelope Chetwode, the daughter of a Field Marshal, Betjeman had a relationship with Elizabeth Cavendish, the daughter of the Duke of Devonshire and Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret. Betjeman, a devout Anglican, was tormented by guilt about the storms this emotional triangle caused. This book is the first to use fully the vast archive of personal material relating to Betjeman's private life, including literally hundreds of letters written by his wife about their life together and apart. It is a celebration of a much-loved poet, a brave campaigner for architecture at risk, and a highly popular public performer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63452 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-06
• Original language: English
• 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.

Vividly recaptured - the life of an endearing and infuriating man
By the time I'd finished this biography, it was difficult to know whether to like Betjeman or not. He was clearly a gifted poet, a man of (very Anglican) faith, and a passionate defender of Britain's architectural heritage. But also a man who, in Wilson's estimation, hung onto his guilt as a way of helping him avoid having to choose between wife and mistress; a class-obsessed snob; and a man whose children (his son in particular) seem to have suffered much of the same mutual antagonism that Betjeman and his own father visited on each other. But perhaps all of this is simply proof that Wilson's book is very good, and succeeds in bringing this endearing, infuriating man and his many passions to life really well. It's an added bonus that the author brings to bear his own keen literary judgment on the likely enduring value of Betjeman's poetry, alongside an appreciation of his undoubted, if sometimes eccentric, contribution to the preservation of Britain's built heritage.

A wonderful book and tribute to a fascinating man.
This is a great buy by any standard. The hardback edition was well bound and the whole production was from another age. The book did not have collections of drawings and photographs poorely bound in clusters ready to fall out with use. The images were on the pages that you are reading and make reading the text doubly pleasurable. In fact the text is scattered with many little "thumbnail sketches" by JB. Even the paper and typography is above usual standards. A pleasure to open and read. But there is so much more to come. The text is written with real affection for JB and that brings him to life ,faults and all, in a way that other biographies have not quite acheived for me. A lovely book and one I would suggest as an essential addition to any bookshelf that has JB`s work on it!