Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
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.
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
Julia O'Faolain
Living in different countries, JOF
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 dell'Ombrellino...
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.
qtd. in
Connolly, Sally. “Woolly whispers of the past”. Times Literary Supplement, 13 Apr. 2001, p. 25.
25
Other influences she claimed are...
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
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
A reprint of 1959 quotes on its dustjacket a chorus of praise. John Betjeman
and Sir Compton Mackenzie
called the novel RM
's...
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
.
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
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...
Lord, Graham. John Mortimer, The Devil’s Advocate. The Unauthorised Biography. Orion, 2005.
69
and received accolades from reviewers for its brilliantly successful attack on . . . the spiritual and physical relationship of married life.
qtd. in
Mortimer, Penelope. About Time Too: 1940-1978. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1993.
50
John Betjeman
called it...
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
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
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
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 et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Brennan, Maeve. The Philip Larkin I Knew. Manchester University Press, 2002.
Late October 1955: The Welsh poet R. S. (Ronald Stuart) Thomas...
Writing climate item
Late October 1955
The Welsh poet R. 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 et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
