Connolly, Sally. “Woolly whispers of the past”. Times Literary Supplement, p. 25.
25
John Betjeman
-
Standard Name: Betjeman, John
JB
was a writer of popular, plangent, often nostalgic poems, who served as Poet Laureate from 1969. He also published an autobiography in blank verse, a novel about a teddy bear, and books and articles on architecture.
Connections
| Connections Sort descending | Author name | Excerpt |
|---|---|---|
| Friends, Associates | Ann Bridge | AB
's correspondents included Ka Arnold-Foster
, John Betjeman
, E. M. Forster
, Margaret Haig Rhondda
, Margaret Irwin
, John Masefield
, Naomi Mitchison
, I. A. Richards
, Vita Sackville-West
, and... |
| Friends, Associates | Julia O'Faolain | Living in different countries, JOF
has moved in different literary circles, not all Irish or English. In Florence she and her husband were welcomed into the circle of the cosmopolitan writer Violet Trefusis
at Villa... |
| Friends, Associates | Antonia Fraser | Family friends and frequent visitors to the Pakenham household included J. M. Keynes
, William Beveridge
(whom AF
's father had assisted in plans for the postwar Welfare State), Hugh Gaitskell
, and (particularly good... |
| Friends, Associates | Elizabeth Jennings | She had a remarkably catholic talent for friendship. During her student days she became a friend of Philip Larkin
and Kingsley Amis
. Her correspondents at this and later periods of her life included her... |
| Intertextuality and Influence | U. A. Fanthorpe | UAF
was anthologized by Adrian Barlow
in Calling Kindred: Poems from the English Speaking World, 1993. At Poetry International 2000, she chose Robert Browning
as her Presiding Spirit. |
| Literary responses | Rose Macaulay | The Towers of Trebizond won the James Black Tait prize. Babington Smith, Constance. Rose Macaulay. Collins, 1972. 203 Bensen, Alice. Rose Macaulay. Twayne, 1969. 154 |
| Literary responses | Nancy Mitford | NM
's essay became notorious, causing the issue of Encounter to sell out almost immediately. It was reprinted (with the pieces by Ross and Waugh, cartoons by Osbert Lancaster
, and the poem How to... |
| Literary responses | Penelope Mortimer | The novel was a Book Society
choice, Lord, Graham. John Mortimer, The Devil’s Advocate. The Unauthorised Biography. Orion, 2005. 69 Mortimer, Penelope. About Time Too: 1940-1978. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1993. 50 |
| Literary responses | Theodora Benson | John Betjeman
, reviewing this book in the Daily Herald, called it a beautiful novel. . . . Full of acute feminine observation, drinks, jokes, talk in keeping with its varied characters, atmosphere and... |
| Literary responses | Iris Murdoch | For a first publication, this garnered much positive comment. While The Guardian, Sir John Betjeman
in the Daily Telegraph, and Angus Wilson
in the Observer were comparatively unappreciative, Kingsley Amis
in The Spectator... |
| Literary responses | Monica Dickens | Persephone
's webside quotes two excellent reviews from the date of first publication—one from John Betjeman
and one from Elizabeth Bowen
. Persephone Books. |
| Literary responses | Daphne Du Maurier | Book critic Ivor Brown
of the New York Times Book Review commented on the academic neglect of DDM
's work in his review of The Parasites: When the academic professors of Literature in Our... |
| Literary responses | Rumer Godden | This was one of RG
's great successes. Her agent Spencer Curtis Brown
said of the central idea, [y]ou do go out of the way to make things difficult. A little boy complained that she... |
| Literary responses | Iris Tree | In his introduction Betjeman
calls the poem strangely haunting, and judges that It belongs to the age of the 1920's [sic] and early 30's [sic], both in phraseology and outlook. According to him, it is... |
| Literary responses | Philip Larkin | This collection was a Poetry Book Society
choice. It received an award from the Arts Council
and brought Larkin the Queen's Medal for Poetry in June 1965. Matthew, Henry Colin Gray, Brian Harrison, and Lawrence Goldman, editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Brennan, Maeve. The Philip Larkin I Knew. Manchester University Press, 2002. 62 |
Timeline
Late October 1955
The Welsh poetR. S. (Ronald Stuart) Thomas
first came to wide notice with his collection Song at the Year's Turning (with an introduction by John Betjeman
), which drew on three earlier volumes.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray, Brian Harrison, and Lawrence Goldman, editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
TLS Centenary Archive Centenary Archive [1902-2012].
2800 (28 October 1955): 634