About John Betjeman
John Betjeman (28 August 1906 – 19 May 1984) was a British poet and writer who described himself in Who's Who as a “poet and scribe.” John Betjeman began his studies at Highgate School, where he had the poet T. S. Eliot as a teacher, then at the Dragon School in Oxford and finally at Marlborough College, in Wiltshire, where he became friends with Anthony Blunt. Betjeman left Oxford without a degree, but there he met friends who would influence his later work: Louis MacNeice, W. H. Auden, Osbert Lancaster, and Jock Murray, who published the majority of his books.After a career in journalism, he became Poet Laureate, the Queen's official poet, from 1972 until his death. His numerous broadcasts on the BBC and his campaigns to save several historic monuments made him an extremely popular figure.
Browse all poems and texts published on John Betjeman
Too many people in the modern world view poetry as a luxury, not a necessity like petrol. But to me it's the oil of life.
