Books we like ... and books we're not too fussed about
John Betjeman (edited by Stephen Games)
John Murray 2007
This collection of radio talks by John Betjeman is done few favours by its title, which reinforces the image many have of Betjeman as the nation’s favourite teddy bear, an early version of Stephen Fry, forever harking back to nursery teas and an idealized England which never really existed. However, what becomes clear from this book is what a radical and thoughtful defender of at the time highly unfashionable Victorian and Georgian architecture he actually was. The sadness is that so much of what he was defending, detailed in these talks from the ‘thirties, ‘forties, and ‘fifties, is now gone anyway. His descriptions are evocative; his condemnations heart felt; his opinions partisan. There are far too many references to ilex trees (holly apparently) and occasionally a direct address to the reader (listener?) that is mannered and quaint (“Which are you? I don’t know which you are.”), but there is also some of the best writing on church architecture and the delights of the West Country I have come across (admittedly my experience is fairly limited in both fields). There’s some stuff about ancient clergy and forgotten (in many cases justly it would seem) minor poets which you can skip; overall however this is a book which will be of interest to fans both of Betjeman and of an England that the Luftwaffe and the post-war town planners worked so hard to destroy.
29 May 2010
http://www.johnbetjeman.com/
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