JOHN BETJEMAN

Collected Poems

John Betjeman was born near Highgate, London, in 1906. After reading English literature at Magdalen College, Oxford, he worked in various jobs, including stints at the Architectural Review, as the British press attaché in Dublin during World War II, and as codeveloper of a series of British county guides. He published prolifically through the 1930s and 1940s, and achieved sudden fame in 1958 with the release of his Collected Poems. A hugely popular and influential national poet, he continued to work in radio and television and as a film critic. John Betjeman was knighted in 1969 and made poet laureate in 1972. He died in Trebetherick in 1984.