John Betjeman 1906–84

Abstract

Sir John Betjeman was born in Highgate and educated at Highgate School, Marlborough College and Magdalen College, Oxford. In 1931, after a brief spell as a schoolmaster, he started writing for the Architectural Review, architecture was to be a lifelong interest. His first book of verse, Mount Zion (1931), was followed by further collections, and Betjeman gradually became known to a larger public than most poets have been able to reach. Collected Poems (1958, revised 1962) and Summoned by Bells (1960), a verse account of the author’s school and university days, were very successful. Academic critics have underrated Betjeman’s light, urbane verses about suburban mores and Anglican churchgoing, but Auden and Larkin, among other poets, acknowledged the subtlety and variety of his art. John Betjeman was knighted in 1969 and became Poet Laureate in 1972.