Betjeman's England by John Betjeman


Betjeman's England
Title : Betjeman's England
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 1848540914
ISBN-10 : 9781848540910
Language : English
Format Type : Hardcover
Number of Pages : 320
Publication : First published May 14, 2009

For more than half a century, Betjeman's writings have awakened readers to the intimacy of English places—from the smell of gaslight in suburban churches, to the hissing of backwash on a shingle beach. Betjeman is England's greatest typologist: whether he's talking about a townhall or a teaship, he gets to the nub of what makes unexpected places—and unexpected people—tick. This new collection of his writings, arranged geographically, offers an essential gazetteer to the physical landmarks of Betjeman Country and the characters who inhabit it.

Betjeman's England Reviews

  • Sitatunga

    an idiosyncratic collection of bits and pieces revealing the laureate at his best and worst, elegiac and petulant, gracious and insufferable, erudite and blinkered

  • Douglas

    Composed during a bout of insomnia. I am at the retrospective stage of life as was Betjeman when he too was in his 70s. We remember the past in much the same way: he was a boy in an English public and I in an American one during an era when the culture still held; even though there was some 40 years difference in our ages. We both sought the security of traditions and the homespun. Efficiency, coordination, the stuff of all the busyness (business) of the modern lives structured around acquisition is something with which we are out of step. So I read the little vignettes of that cast off time which are his poems. I find comfort in reading them as he did in writing then; knowing full well there would be minds out there scanning the spectrum until they received his transmission.