'A true poet who extends experience' -- Margaret Lane 'John Betjeman has succeeded ... in narrowing the gulf between poetry and the public ... he has established a personal regency over all contemporary taste' -- The Times 'It would be difficult - in my opinion impossible - to point to a contemporary poet of greater originality or more genuine depth of feeling' -- Anthony Powell

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.