John Betjeman

John Betjeman was born in 1906 in London, and went to the Highgate Junior School, where his teachers included T.S. Eliot. After leaving Oxford without a degree, Betjeman was briefly a schoolmaster, then worked for Shell as Editor of their Town Guides, and for the Architectural Review. An increasingly popular poet and television personality, he published his long autobiographical poem SUMMONED BY BELLS in 1960, the same year he was awarded his CBE. He was knighted in 1968 and appointed Poet...See more

John Betjeman was born in 1906 in London, and went to the Highgate Junior School, where his teachers included T.S. Eliot. After leaving Oxford without a degree, Betjeman was briefly a schoolmaster, then worked for Shell as Editor of their Town Guides, and for the Architectural Review. An increasingly popular poet and television personality, he published his long autobiographical poem SUMMONED BY BELLS in 1960, the same year he was awarded his CBE. He was knighted in 1968 and appointed Poet Laureate in 1974. He died in 1984. John Betjeman was born in London on 28 August 1906. He was educated at Marlborough and Magdalen College, Oxford. In 1931 his first book of poems, 'Mount Zion', was published by an old Oxford friend, Edward James. His second book was 'Ghastly Good Taste', a commentary on architecture, published in 1934. He was knighted in 1969 and was appointed Poet Laureate in 1972. John Betjeman died on 19 May 1984 at his home in Trebetherick, Cornwall and was buried at the nearby church of St Enodoc. See less