John Betjeman

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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.

Milestones

28 August 1906

JB was born at Highgate in North London, the only child of a cabinet-maker.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.

1931

JB published his first volume of poetry, Mount Zion.
Drabble, Margaret, and Jenny Stringer, editors. The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford University Press.
54
Parker, Peter, editor. A Reader’s Guide to Twentieth-Century Writers. Oxford University Press.
77-8

19 May 1984

Sir JB , the Poet Laureate, died at his home at Trebetherick in Cornwall.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.

Biography

Birth and Family

28 August 1906

JB was born at Highgate in North London, the only child of a cabinet-maker.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.

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