This selection of Betjeman’s radio talks was first published in 2006, twenty two years after the Poet Laureate died and for anyone unfamiliar with Sir John’s prose work this compilation edited and selected by Stephen Games is an excellent introduction. The talks range in date from 17th February 1932 to 6th July 1975 although it should be noted that this last one, concerning the great hymn writer Isaac Watts, is an extreme outrider in the selection and the second most recent is from 1952 so the vast majority are from the 1930’s and 40’s. I grew up listening to Betjeman on the radio or watching him on television extolling the virtues and vices of architecture he either liked or loathed and of course travelling around Britain, preferably by train and introducing me to poetry. It is only when writing this article that I realise that he has been dead for forty two years as of next month and wonder how many people know of or read him today? He was a man of forthright opinions, although always expressed in a polite manner as befits a much loved gentleman of the old school, and his statue in St Pancras railway station is fitting as he campaigned so hard to save this wonderful building. For me the most successful of the forty eight talks are the ones concerning places rather than people, there are twelve biographical works in the book including one autobiographical snippet about Christmas and the final talk is a bit of an oddity in a book as it is entitled ‘John Betjeman reads a selection of his own poetry’ which clearly he doesn’t in this case although the explanations as to why he chose specific works and a little insight into them is well worth reading. A line from the 1937 article on Swindon gives a hint as to why I loved the talks about places:
Swindon is full of good hearts and ugly houses – and it’s the ugly houses I’m going to talk about.
Sir John must have received some remonstrations about this talk as in later essays he says some nice things about Swindon, although not too nice, he doesn’t change his overall position, but does at least find some parts of the city to like. It puts me in mind of his poem Slough, also written in 1937 which begins:
Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough
It isn’t fit for humans now,
He was obviously having a bad time with urban planners in 1937. However it’s not by any means a negative book, there is much to celebrate and Sir John does so, highlighting amongst other the beauty and history of the out of the way parts of Exeter and the joys of returning to England during World War II in his brief breaks from being British press attaché in Dublin after being rejected for active service.Even just reciting the names of villages brings him comfort in 1943 appreciating the words in the spirit of a true poet, and yes all of them are real, I’ve been to several of these:
To think of the names is to feel better – Huish Episcopi, Whitchurch Canonicorum, Willingale Spain, Tickencote, Bourton-on-the-Hill, Iwerne Minster, Piddletrenthide, South Molton, Wotton, Norton, Evenlode, Fairford, Canons Ashby, Bag Enderby, Kingston Bagpuize.
The biographical works are mainly split into two sections ‘Eccentrics’ and ‘Christian Soldiers’, which I think tells you a lot about the selection, however in the ‘Christian Soldiers’ section is a talk on St Petroc, the patron saint of Cornwall where Betjeman manages to give a presentation of a man that he freely admits at the beginning virtually nothing is known, The inclusion of Pugin by Sir John is not surprising if only for his detailing on The Houses of Parliament in London and the Irish eccentric Adolphus Cooke Esq. of Cookesborough would be funny if it wasn’t ultimately so tragi
The title of the book comes from an early part of Betjeman’s autobiographical poetic work ‘Summoned by Bells‘ and relates to the comfort he found as a pre-school age child in his teddy bear Archibald. Indeed the words ‘Buttered Toast’ appear five times in this work which says a lot about the simple pleasures that Sir John would fondly celebrate.
There will be more of John Betjeman’s travels around Britain in August as part of my annual summer theme.
Ramblings on my bookshelves 