John Betjeman: Making Light

‘There will be the reaction and I shall suffer contempt, neglect and frustration,’ John Betjeman wrote to his publisher Jock Murray following the launch of his Collected Poems in December 1958. The book would go on to become a publishing phenomenon, selling well over two million copies in its various incarnations, and confirming its author as the most popular English poet of the twentieth century.

Yet Betjeman’s unease regarding his critical reputation reflects an insecure side to his character, one that apparently lies in tension with poetry that seems bent on charming us with humour and bonhomie. In fact, the Teddy Bear Bard deliberately made light of some heavy material, discharging his passions and alleviating his anxieties by transforming them into uniquely engaging verse.

Perhaps only now, almost forty years after his death, is the true impact that these passions and anxieties had on his poetry becoming evident. Long taken for granted as a lightversifying throwback to the pre-modernist age, Betjeman re-emerges as a charismatic, troubled individual whose ‘simple’ poems dextrously negotiated the complexities of his personality and his personal life.

About the author:

Tim Hancock lectures at Ulster University, specialising in modern English poetry. He has published research on (among others) Betjeman, John Donne, T.S. Eliot, Mina Loy, Seamus Heaney and Paul Muldoon. He lives near the north coast of Northern Ireland, although his imagination lives near the south coast of Cornwall.

110 pages

ISBN: 978-1-910996-57-7