Editing John Betjeman (section)

==Life==

===Early life and education===
Betjeman was born in London to a prosperous silverware maker of Dutch descent.{{cn|date=April 2025}} His parents, Mabel ({{Nee|Dawson}}) and Ernest Betjemann, had a family firm which manufactured the kind of ornamental household furniture and gadgets distinctive to [[Victorian era|Victorians]]. The Tantalus as it was called held the original patent in 1881 (UK Patent 58948) and was by George Betjemann, a cabinet maker from Germany.[2] Betjemann & Sons had workshops at 34–42 Pentonville Road, London from the 1830s.[3]

Very few Betjemann examples survive in complete condition; those that do are generally sold at auction for sums in the thousands of US dollars.[4] Original Betjemann articles should have brass or silver plate stamps signifying their authenticity. Later models, had several different styles and were also called "The Betjemann Tantalus"[1] even though no cabinetry was present with these versions and they were not made at the Pentonville works.

Betjemann was the grandfather of the poet John Betjeman, who in Summoned by Bells called it the source of the family fortune.[5] <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=119449|title=Survey of London: volume 47: Northern Clerkenwell and Pentonville|publisher=[[English Heritage]]|year=2008|access-date=28 February 2014|pages=339–372}}</ref>

During the First World War the family name was changed to the less German-looking Betjeman. His father's forebears had actually come from the present day [[Netherlands]] more than a century earlier, setting up their home and business in [[Islington]], London, and during the [[Fourth Anglo-Dutch War]] had, ironically, added the extra "-n" to avoid the anti-Dutch sentiment existing at the time.<ref name="Mowl2011">{{cite book|last=Mowl|first=Timothy |author-link=Timothy Mowl|title=Stylistic Cold Wars: Betjeman Versus Pevsner|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vKR9DwEACAAJ|year=2011|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=978-0-571-27535-9|page=13}}</ref>

Betjeman was baptised at St Anne's Church, Highgate Rise, a 19th-century church at the foot of [[Highgate West Hill]].  The family lived at Parliament Hill Mansions in the [[Lissenden Gardens]] private estate in [[Gospel Oak]] in north London.

In 1909, the Betjemanns moved half a mile north to more opulent [[Highgate]]. From West Hill they lived in the reflected glory of the [[Holly Lodge Estate|Burdett-Coutts estate]]:

{{bquote|<poem>
Here from my eyrie, as the sun went down,
I heard the old [[North London Railway|North London]] puff and shunt,
Glad that I did not live in Gospel Oak.{{sfn|Betjeman|1960|p=}}
</poem>}}

Betjeman's early schooling was at the local [[Byron House School|Byron House]] and [[Highgate School]], where he was taught by poet [[T. S. Eliot]]. After this, he boarded at the [[Dragon School]] [[Preparatory school (England)|preparatory school]] in North Oxford and [[Marlborough College]], a [[Independent school (UK)|public school]] in Wiltshire. In his penultimate year, he joined the secret Society of Amici<ref name="Hinde1992">{{cite book|last=Hinde|first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Hinde|title=Paths of Progress: A History of Marlborough College|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oOerAAAACAAJ|year=1992|publisher=James & James|isbn=978-0-907383-33-8}}</ref> in which he was a contemporary of both [[Louis MacNeice]] and [[Graham Shepard]]. He founded ''[[The Heretick]]'', a satirical magazine that lampooned Marlborough's obsession with sport. While at school, his exposure to the works of [[Arthur Machen]] won him over to [[High Church]] [[Anglicanism]], a conversion of importance to his later writing and conception of the arts.<ref name="Gardner2006">{{cite book|last=Gardner|first=Kevin J. |title=Faith and Doubt of John Betjeman: An Anthology of his Religious Verse|url={{google books|id=VKW6BwAAQBAJ|plainurl=yes|keywords=high church|page=xxi}}|date=30 August 2006|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4411-5354-8}}</ref> Betjeman left Marlborough in July 1925.<ref name=register>{{cite book|title=Marlborough College Register 1843–1952|publisher=The Bursar|location= Marlborough|date= 1953|page= 653|chapter=Betjeman, John}}</ref>

===Magdalen College, Oxford===
Betjeman entered the [[University of Oxford]] with difficulty, having failed the mathematics portion of the university's matriculation exam, [[Responsions]]. He was, however, admitted as a [[Commoner (academia)|commoner]] (i.e., a non-scholarship student) at [[Magdalen College, Oxford|Magdalen College]] and entered the newly created School of English Language and Literature. At Oxford, Betjeman made little use of the academic opportunities. His tutor, a young [[C. S. Lewis]], regarded him as an "idle prig" and Betjeman in turn considered Lewis unfriendly, demanding, and uninspiring as a teacher.<ref name="OxfordToday">{{cite web|last=Priestman|first=Judith|url=http://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/2005-06/v18n3/05.shtml|title=The dilettante and the dons|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090417002131/http://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/2005-06/v18n3/05.shtml |archive-date=17 April 2009 |work=[[Oxford Today]]|date= 2006}}</ref> Betjeman particularly disliked the coursework's emphasis on linguistics, and dedicated most of his time to cultivating his social life, his interest in [[Church architecture of England|English ecclesiastical architecture]], and private literary pursuits.

At Oxford, he was a friend of [[Maurice Bowra]], later to be Warden of [[Wadham College, Oxford|Wadham]] (1938 to 1970). Betjeman had a poem published in ''[[Isis (magazine)|Isis]]'', the university magazine, and served as editor of the ''[[Cherwell (newspaper)|Cherwell]]'' student newspaper during 1927. His first book of poems was privately printed with the help of fellow student [[Edward James]]. He brought his teddy bear [[Archibald Ormsby-Gore]] up to Magdalen with him, the memory of which inspired his Oxford contemporary [[Evelyn Waugh]] to include [[Sebastian Flyte]]'s teddy [[Aloysius (Waugh)|Aloysius]] in ''[[Brideshead Revisited]]''. Much of this period of his life is recorded in his [[blank verse]] autobiography, ''[[Summoned by Bells]]'', published in 1960 and made into a television film in 1976.<ref name="Peterson2006">{{cite book|last=Peterson|first=William S. |title=John Betjeman: A Bibliography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2wLNathQPNgC|year=2006|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-818403-4}}</ref>

It is a common misapprehension, cultivated by Betjeman himself, that he did not complete his degree because he failed to pass the compulsory holy scripture examination, [[Oxford "-er"|known colloquially as "Divvers"]], short for "Divinity". In [[Hilary term]] 1928, Betjeman failed Divinity for the second time. He had to leave the university for the [[Trinity term]] to prepare for a retake of the exam; he was then allowed to return in October. Betjeman then wrote to the Secretary of the Tutorial Board at [[Magdalen College, Oxford|Magdalen]], G. C. Lee, asking to be entered for the Pass School, a set of examinations taken on rare occasions by undergraduates who are deemed unlikely to achieve an [[British undergraduate degree classification|honours degree]]. In ''Summoned by Bells'' Betjeman claims that his tutor, C. S. Lewis, said "You'd have only got a third"&nbsp;– but he had informed the tutorial board that he thought Betjeman would not achieve an honours degree of any class.<ref name="OxfordToday"/>

Permission to sit the Pass School was granted. Betjeman decided to offer a paper in Welsh. [[Osbert Lancaster]] tells the story that a tutor came by train twice a week (first class) from [[Aberystwyth]] to teach Betjeman. However, [[Jesus College, Oxford|Jesus College]] had a number of Welsh tutors who more probably would have taught him. Betjeman finally had to leave at the end of the [[Michaelmas term]], 1928.<ref name="Hillier2003">{{cite book|last=Hillier|first=Bevis |author-link=Bevis Hillier|title=Young Betjeman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PYpDPgAACAAJ|year=2003|publisher=John Murray|isbn=978-0-7195-6488-8|pages=181–194}}</ref> Betjeman did pass his Divinity examination on his third try but was expelled after failing the Pass School. He had achieved a satisfactory result in only one of the three required papers (on [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] and other English authors).<ref name="OxfordToday" /> Betjeman's academic failure at Oxford rankled him for the rest of his life and he was never reconciled with C. S. Lewis, towards whom he nursed a bitter detestation. This situation was perhaps complicated by his enduring love of Oxford, from which he accepted an honorary [[Doctor of Letters|doctorate of letters]] in 1974.<ref name="OxfordToday" />

===After university===
[[File:Wadebridge, The John Betjeman Centre Memorabilia Room - geograph.org.uk - 211005.jpg|thumb|right|The John Betjeman Centre Memorabilia Room showing the office from his home in [[Trebetherick]]]]
Betjeman left Oxford without a degree. Whilst there, however, he had made the acquaintance of people who would later influence his work, including [[Louis MacNeice]] and [[W. H. Auden]].<ref name="Taylor-Martin1983">{{Cite book |last=Taylor-Martin |first=Patrick |url={{google books|id=eMIVAAAAMAAJ|page=35|keywords=Wystan Auden|plainurl=yes}} |title=John Betjeman, his life and work |publisher=Allen Lane |year=1983 |page=35}}</ref> He worked briefly as a private secretary, school teacher and film critic for the ''[[Evening Standard]]'', where he also wrote for their high-society gossip column, the "[[Londoner's Diary]]". He was employed by the ''[[Architectural Review]]'' between 1930 and 1935, as a full-time assistant editor, following their publishing of some of his freelance work. [[Timothy Mowl]] (2000) says, "His years at the ''Architectural Review'' were to be his true university".<ref name="Mowl2011" /> At this time, while his prose style matured, he joined the [[MARS Group]], an organisation of young modernist architects and architectural critics in Britain.

In 1937, Betjeman was a [[churchwarden]] at [[Uffington, Oxfordshire|Uffington]], the Berkshire village (in [[Oxfordshire]] since boundary changes of 1974) where he lived from 1934 to 1945. That year, he paid for the cleaning of the church's royal arms and later presided over the conversion of the church's [[oil lamp]]s to electricity.<ref name= Delaney>{{Cite book |last=Delaney |first=Frank |title=Betjeman Country |date=1983 |publisher=Paladin (Granada) |isbn=0-586-08499-1 |page=158}}</ref>

The ''[[Shell Guides]]'' were developed by Betjeman and [[Jack Beddington]], a friend who was publicity manager with [[Shell-Mex & BP]], to guide Britain's growing number of motorists around the counties of Britain and their historical sites. They were published by the Architectural Press and financed by [[Royal Dutch Shell|Shell]]. By the start of World War II, 13 had been published, of which ''[[Cornwall]]'' (1934) and ''[[Devon]]'' (1936) were written by Betjeman. A third, ''[[Shropshire]]'', was written with and designed by his good friend [[John Piper (artist)|John Piper]] in 1951.

In 1939, Betjeman was rejected for military service in World War II but found war work with the films division of the [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]]. In 1941, he became British press attaché in neutral [[Dublin]], Ireland, working with [[John Maffey, 1st Baron Rugby|Sir John Maffey]]. He is reported to have been selected for murder by the [[Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)|IRA]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gibbons |first=Fiachra |date=23 April 2000 |title=How verse saved poet laureate from the IRA |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/apr/22/books.booksnews |access-date=7 April 2020 |website=The Guardian}}</ref> The order was rescinded after a meeting with an unnamed Old IRA man who was impressed by his works.

Betjeman wrote poems based on his experiences in [[The Emergency (Ireland)|Ireland]] during the "Emergency" (the war) including "The Irish Unionist's Farewell to Greta Hellstrom in 1922" (written during the war) which contained the refrain "Dungarvan in the rain".<ref name="Betjeman 1922">{{Cite web |last=Betjeman |first=John |date=1922 |title=The Irish Unionist's farewell to Greta Hellastrom |url=http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/john_betjeman/poems/810}}</ref> The object of his affections, "Greta", remained a mystery until revealed to have been a member of a well-known [[Protestant Ascendancy|Anglo-Irish]] family of Western [[county Waterford]]. His official brief included establishing friendly contacts with leading figures in the Dublin literary scene: he befriended [[Patrick Kavanagh]], then at the very start of his career. Kavanagh celebrated the birth of Betjeman's daughter with a poem "Candida"; another well-known poem contains the line ''Let John Betjeman call for me in a car''. From March to November 1944 Betjeman was assigned to another wartime job, working on publicity for the Admiralty in [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]].{{cn|date=August 2021}}

===After the Second World War===
[[File:John Betjeman's house on Cloth Fair.jpg|thumb|Betjeman's house on [[Cloth Fair]] in the [[City of London]], marked with a [[blue plaque]] (August 2007)]]
By 1948, Betjeman had published more than a dozen books. Five of these were verse collections, including one in the USA. Sales of his ''Collected Poems'' in 1958 reached 100,000.<ref name="FandF">{{Cite web | title = John Betjeman  | work = Faber & Faber | date = n.d. | access-date = 31 July 2018 | url = https://www.faber.co.uk/author/john-betjeman/ }}</ref> The popularity of the book prompted [[Ken Russell]] to make a film about him, ''John Betjeman: A Poet in London'' (1959). Filmed in 35&nbsp;mm and running 11 minutes and 35 seconds, it was first shown on the [[BBC]]'s ''[[Monitor (UK TV series)|Monitor]]'' programme.<ref name="BFI2014">{{Cite web | title =John Betjeman: A Poet in London (1959) | work = BFI Screenonline |year = 2014 | access-date = 31 July 2018 | url = http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/929290/index.html }}</ref> From 1945 till 1951 he lived at The Old Rectory, [[Farnborough, Berkshire|Farnborough]], Wantage, Berkshire.<ref name=register/> In 1951 he moved to the Mead in Wantage, until 1971. His daughter Candida was married in the church there in May 1963.

Betjeman continued writing guidebooks and works on architecture during the 1960s and 1970s and began to broadcast.  Betjeman was closely associated with the culture and spirit of [[Metro-land]], as outer reaches of the [[Metropolitan Railway]] were known before the war. 
In 1967, Betjeman was considered as a candidate to be the new [[Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom]], following the death of [[John Masefield]]. He was rejected after the [[Prime Minister's Appointments Secretary]] John Hewitt consulted with Dame [[Helen Gardner (critic)|Helen Gardner]], the [[Merton Professor of English]] at the [[University of Oxford]] (who stated that Betjeman was "a lightweight, amusing but rather trivial" with "critical views about [[the establishment]]") and Geoffrey Handley-Taylor, chair of [[The Poetry Society]] (who stated that Betjeman "called himself a poetic hack and there was some truth to this"). [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Harold Wilson]] ultimately selected [[Cecil Day-Lewis]] after Hewitt recommended him over Betjeman, whom Hewitt described to Wilson as a "backward-looking choice" and "the songster of tennis lawns and cathedral cloisters".<ref name="BBC2023">{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66224984|work=[[BBC News]]|title=No 10 turned down Larkin, Auden and other poets for laureate job|date=19 July 2023|first=Sanchia|last=Berg}}</ref> 

Betjeman would become Poet Laureate in 1972 following the death of Day-Lewis, the first [[Knight Bachelor]] to be appointed (the only other, Sir [[William Davenant]], was knighted after his appointment). This role, combined with his profile from television appearances, ensured that his poetry reached a wider audience. Similarly to [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]], he managed to voice the thoughts and aspirations of many ordinary people while retaining the respect of many of his fellow poets. This is partly because of the apparently simple traditional metrical structures and rhymes he uses.<ref name="poetryarchive.org">{{Cite web | title = John Betjeman  | work = The Poetry Archive |year = 2016 | access-date = 31 July 2018 | url = https://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/john-betjeman# }}</ref> 
In the early 1970s, he began a recording career of four albums on [[Charisma Records]] - ''Banana Blush'', ''Late Flowering Love'' (both 1974), ''Sir John Betjeman's Britain'' (1977) and ''Varsity Rag'' (1981) where his poetry reading is set to music composed by [[Jim Parker (composer)|Jim Parker]] with overdubbing by leading musicians of the time.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jul/31/tv-score-composer-and-betjeman-collaborator-jim-parker-dies-aged-88 'TV score composer and Betjeman collaborator Jim Parker dies aged 88'], in ''The Guardian'', 31 July 2023</ref> [[Madeleine Dring]] set five of Betjeman's poems to music in 1976, just before her death.<ref>Madeleine Dring. [https://shop.abrsm.org/shop/prod/Dring-Madeleine-5-Betjeman-Songs-voice-piano/608675 ''Five Betjeman Songs'' (1976)], published in 1980 by Weinberger</ref><ref>''Mojo'' No. 187 pp. 122</ref> His recording catalogue extends to nine albums, four singles and two compilations.

In 1973, he made a well-regarded television documentary for the BBC called ''[[Metro-Land (TV film)|Metro-Land]]'', directed by [[Edward Mirzoeff]].  In 1974, Betjeman and Mirzoeff followed up ''Metro-Land'' with ''[[A Passion for Churches]]'', a celebration of Betjeman's beloved [[Church of England]], filmed entirely in the [[Diocese of Norwich]]. In 1975, he proposed that the Fine Rooms of [[Somerset House]] should house the [[Turner Bequest]], so helping to scupper the plan of the [[Minister for the Arts (United Kingdom)|Minister for the Arts]] for a [[Theatre Museum]] to be housed there. In 1977, the BBC broadcast ''The Queen's Realm: A Prospect of England'', an aerial anthology of English landscape, music and poetry, selected by Betjeman and produced by Edward Mirzoeff, in celebration of the [[Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II|Queen's Silver Jubilee]].

Betjeman was fond of the ghost stories of [[M. R. James]] and supplied an introduction to [[Peter Haining (author)|Peter Haining]]'s book ''M. R. James&nbsp;– Book of the Supernatural''. He was susceptible to the supernatural; [[Diana Mitford]] recalled Betjeman staying at her country home, [[Biddesden House]] in Wiltshire, in the 1920s. She said: "he had a terrifying dream, that he was handed a card with wide black edges, and on it his name was engraved, and a date. He knew this was the date of his death".<ref name="Mitford2008">{{cite book|last=Mosley|first=Diana |author-link=Diana Mitford|title=A Life of Contrasts: The Autobiography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cyYMAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA83|year=2008|publisher=Gibson Square|isbn=978-1-906142-14-8|page=83}}</ref> 

===Personal life and death===
On 29 July 1933, Betjeman married the Hon. [[Penelope Chetwode]], the daughter of [[Field Marshal]] [[Philip Chetwode, 1st Baron Chetwode|Lord Chetwode]]. The couple lived in [[Berkshire]] and had a son, Paul, in 1937, and a daughter, [[Candida Lycett Green|Candida]], in 1942.<ref name= Delaney/> She became a Roman Catholic in 1948.{{cn|date=September 2024}}  The couple drifted apart and in 1951 he met [[Lady Elizabeth Cavendish]], with whom he developed an immediate and lifelong friendship.{{cn|date=September 2024}}

Betjeman's sexuality can best be described as [[bisexual]].  His longest and best documented relationships were with women, and a fairer analysis of his sexuality may be that he was "the hatcher of a lifetime of schoolboy crushes – both gay and straight", most of which progressed no further.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Thompson |first=Johnathan |date=13 August 2006 |title=Betjeman Poet, hero of Middle England & a very bad boy |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/betjeman-poet-hero-of-middle-england-amp-a-very-bad-boy-411661.html |access-date=1 December 2015}}</ref> Nevertheless, he has been considered "temperamentally gay", and even became a penpal of [[Lord Alfred Douglas|Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas]], friend and lover of [[Oscar Wilde]].<ref name="Gowers2008">{{Cite news |last=Gowers |first=Justin |date=17 December 2008 |title=Why John Betjeman is a true gay icon |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/dec/17/john-betjeman-gay-icon-wilde |access-date=31 July 2018}}</ref>

For the last decade of his life, Betjeman suffered increasingly from [[Parkinson's disease]]. He died at his home in [[Trebetherick]], Cornwall, on 19 May 1984, aged 77, and is buried nearby at [[St Enodoc's Church, Trebetherick|St Enodoc's Church]].<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=30815|title=Betjeman, Sir John|first=Kingsley|last=Amis|author-link=Kingsley Amis}}</ref>

[[File:Betjeman memorial.JPG|thumb|John Betjeman's gravestone by [[Simon Verity]]]]
Betjeman was an [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] and his religious beliefs come through in some of his poems. In a letter written on Christmas Day 1947, he said: "Also my view of the world is that man is born to fulfil the purposes of his Creator i.e. to Praise his Creator, to stand in awe of Him and to dread Him. In this way I differ from most modern poets, who are agnostics and have an idea that Man is the centre of the Universe or is a helpless bubble blown about by uncontrolled forces."<ref name="patr_Angl">{{Cite web |title=Anglican spirituality and poetry: John Betjeman (1906–1984) |last=Comerford |first=Patrick |work=patrickcomerford.com |date=5 December 2015 |access-date=8 August 2019 |url= http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2015/12/anglican-spirituality-and-poetry-2-john.html }}</ref> He combined piety with a nagging uncertainty about the truth of Christianity. Unlike [[Thomas Hardy]], who disbelieved in the truth of the Christmas story while hoping it might be so, Betjeman affirms his belief even while fearing it might be false.<ref name="Gardner2006" /> In the poem "Christmas", one of his most openly religious pieces, the last three stanzas that proclaim the wonder of Christ's birth do so in the form of a question "And is it true...?" His views on Christianity were expressed in his poem "The Conversion of St. Paul", a response to a radio broadcast by humanist [[Margaret K. Knight|Margaret Knight]]:
{{bquote|<poem>
But most of us turn slow to see
The figure hanging on a tree
And stumble on and blindly grope
Upheld by intermittent hope,
God grant before we die we all
May see the light as did St. Paul.
</poem>}}