Betjeman: A Life - Hardcover

Wilson, A. N.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374111987 ISBN 13: 9780374111984

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2006

Synopsis

John Betjeman was by far the most popular poet of the twentieth century; his collected poems sold more than two million copies. As poet laureate of England, he became a national icon, but behind the public man were doubts and demons. The poet best known for writing hymns of praise to athletic middle-class girls on the tennis courts led a tempestuous emotional life. 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. Betjeman, published to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the poet’s birth, is the first to use fully the vast archive of personal material relating to his private life, including literally hundreds of letters written by his wife about their life together and apart. Here too are chronicled his many friendships, ranging from “Bosie” Douglas to the young satirists ofPrivate Eye, from the Mitford sisters to the Crazy Gang. This is a celebration of a much-loved poet, a brave campaigner for architecture at risk, and a highly popular public performer. Betjeman was the classic example of the melancholy clown, whose sadness found its perfect mood music in the hymns of a poignant Anglicanism.

About this title

Review:

"Wilson's forte is the character and he brilliantly conveys Betjeman's odd mixture of introspection and sociability, gaiety and melancholia, exhibition and self-disgust ... Betjeman is a poet who badly needs saving from his soppier fans, and this Wilson has done" (Lynn Barber Daily Telegraph)

"Funny, poignant and unusually well written, Wilson's biography does the old boy proud" (Jeremy Lewis Mail on Sunday)

"An A-grade demonstration of the point of Betjeman, the vast constituencies to which he appealed and the area of English life that he made his own" (D.J. Taylor Independent)

"Terrific... [Wilson's] book zeroes in on Betjeman's struggles with his faith, which he places dead centre of the life and work, and on his family difficulties, and does so with extraordinary imaginative sympathy... Essential" (Spectator)

"A joy to read and re-read - the perfect match of author and subject" (Hugh Massingberd Spectator)

From the Publisher:

A new life of Betjeman by an award-winning biographer, published to mark the centenary of the poet's birth

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0374111987
• ISBN 13: 9780374111984
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 375