John Betjeman (1906–1984)

I have dipped into this book over the years and read some favourite poems a number of times. I had not read every poem, not read this book cover to cover, until I read the advice of the broadcaster Dr Michael Mosley (1957-2024): reading a poem a day out aloud is good for cognitive health, along with singing, in his Top Ten Tips for Living Well. It is also, quite simply, fun.

Where better to start than the poetry in The Illustrated Poems of John Betjeman - with watercolours by David Gentleman? show more Betjeman's poems are an English delight and David Gentleman's work I much like too - he lives not far from me in Camden Town and I have a number of his works, including one published in this book. The two complement each other very well - the book is a real delight in itself.

The watercolour I own is one of the two that illustrate a favourite poem, "Business Girls", which describes an aspect of Camden Town from years well before I moved here in 1983. Indeed, the last London trolleybus ran in 1962!

This book is a treasure trove of poems by Britain's best loved English poet of the Twentieth Century. The works are grouped into five topics - Love, Church, People, Places, Death. He had an eye for the girls and a feel for love; a few words here and there might not please some in the mid-2020s but they sure paint a picture of an aspect of English life in the last century. The places knew and loved come alive in his poems - London (Highgate, Camden Town, Metro-Land), Oxford, Lincolnshire, Cornwall among them - as the dust jacket has it, he catches the spirit of place.

This is now a favourite book and one I will surely return to in later years.. show less

This selection of Betjeman's poems was read by himself. Some of them had an introduction from him, what he was thinking or the meaning of some words and terms used. At times he is a miserable old so and so "things were better back when...". At other times his attitudes towards women is slightly uncomfortable, the gels etc. But in some of these there are some lovely lyrical images conjured up. I'm fairly sure that there were some in here I'd not heard or read before. As a bell ringer I find show more his fascination with bells to be enchanting, he really is enthralled by them. show less

Ahhhhh, Sir John Betjeman. He's the kind of person you read if Prince Harry just ain't fucking British enough for ya. Take the tram up Tottenham-of-Berfordshire and come to the land of Hobbiton and The Shire. Much of this book is too esoteric for Americans to "get" but I imagine if you're British and you're not at home this stuff will make you nostalgic. The best of this collection is quite great and contrary to what Christopher Hitchens says of the British laureate-ship and the downhill show more tendencies exhibited after earning of it, I didn't see a dive in quality. In fact, I had given up on this book for a long time before I reached the material to which Hitchens would've referred. It was his calling himself a "poet and a hack" that made me really come back. It takes a big man to admit to hack tendencies, I think, and as far as poets go he may never reach the heights of whatsay your Tennyson but that could be a deficiency of aim rather than actual talent. show less

Seemingly trite at first, these articles ultimately create not only a portrait of the country but present Betjeman himself and his ideas. His sympathy for older buildings, particularly those constructed in the Victorian era, is both practical and poignant, and I now have a much better understanding of why there's a statue of him at St Pancras station in London.