Literary Birthday – 28 August – John Betjeman

John Betjeman Quotes

1. Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows.
2. Too many people in the modern world view poetry as a luxury, not a necessity like petrol. But to me it’s the oil of life.
3. People’s backyards are much more interesting than their front gardens, and houses that back on to railways are public benefactors.
4. I don’t think I am any good. If I thought I was any good, I wouldn’t be. (Letters: 1951 to 1984)
5. One mark of good verse is surprise.
6. History must not be written with bias, and both sides must be given, even if there is only one side. (First and Last Loves)
7. I ought to warn you that my verse is of no interest to people who can think. (Trains and Buttered Yoast: selected radio talks)

John Betjeman was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. According to Britannica: ‘He was known for his nostalgia for the near past, his exact sense of place, and his precise rendering of social nuance, which made him widely read in England at a time when much of what he wrote about was rapidly vanishing.’ T.S. Eliot was one of his teachers. In 1932 Betjeman began a career in broadcasting, and he continued with regular radio work for the rest of his life, appearing in a wide range of genres, from panel and game shows, interviews, news interviews, documentaries and poetry readings He was knighted in 1969, and in 1972 he succeeded C. Day-Lewis as poet laureate of Britain. He remained Poet Laureate until he died. Click here for a list of his works.

Source for Image: Daily Herald Archive at the National Media Museum, Edited & Uploaded By MediaJet, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons