John Betjeman (Writers and their Work)

Plymouth: Northcote/British Council, 1999. 1st. p/b. Fine, as new.. C (216 x 135). Sir John Betjeman remains the most popular English poet of today. He has been termed a `national teddy bear', and some commentary has addressed his work in rather such terms. However, it is evident that most of his key themes - the spirit of place (or `place-myth'), mundane lives (`petit recits') or historical continuity (the `presence of the past') - have specific relevance to postmodern and, especially, environmental concerns. Dennis Brown's book assesses Betjeman's contribution in the light of this, emphasising its ironic self-reflexivity, its rendering of Englishness and a `soft' masculinity, and its ecumenical Christian tolerance. The popularity of Betjeman's lyrics, and his verse-autobiography Summoned by Bells, is considered as indicative of Britain's post-imperial self-revaluation. It is shown how the poet's technique offers an accessible alternative to more complex neo-modernist poetics. Overall, the book stresses Betjeman's contemporaneity, and his relevance to an era of `contingency, irony, and solidarity'.