A biographical article, written by A. N. Wilson, himself a famous UK writer, is our source:
'Sir John Betjeman, ... was a hero and prophet. His matchless lyricism and love of the past went to the heart of what it means to be English.
...
'First, he was a poet, the first best-selling English poet since Byron. .... As a boy he was taught by TS Eliot, when the great American modernist was a master at Highgate Junior School. Betj was a friend and admirer of WH Auden.
'He totally understood the modernist movement in poetry. He simply chose to do something different. Rather as William Blake, towards the close of the 18th century, created his original poetic vision by means of ballad and hymn-forms, so Betjeman wrote about his great themes – love, God, death, and place – in accessible forms, which owed much to music hall and to Hymns Ancient and Modern. But time and again, he revealed himself to be a truly original poet, a “lord of language”, to use Tennyson’s phrase.
'… There are no other poems like...[like some of his] in the English language. And there is a lyricism which goes back to the great Romantics:
'Burst, good June, with a rush this morning, /
Bindweed weave me an emerald rope /
Sun, shine bright on the blossoming trellises, /
June and lavender, bring me hope…
'As well as being wonderful poems in themselves, these are immortal snapshots of our land....
'Second, as well as being remembered as a great poet, Betjeman was the man who helped us look at our architectural heritage and appreciate it. When they restored St Pancras Station, rightly did they erect a statue of Betjeman on the platform overlooking the spot where the Eurostar trains pull in and out.
'If it had not been for Betjeman’s belief in the beauty both of the station and of George Gilbert Scott’s St Pancras Hotel, both buildings would have been demolished. He was among those who campaigned to save the great Euston Arch – the propylaeum of Philip Hardwick. Betjeman saw this as one of the great buildings of London. Money talked, and of course, British Rail, and Harold Macmillan, and the ruling orthodoxy all decided that it would be more sensible to pull down one of the masterpieces of the Greek revival, and erect a nondescript monstrosity.
'Betj, bless his heart, was just a sentimentalist, wasn’t he? Who cared for railway stations and olde-tyme buildings? That was the attitude. And there were moments when he almost appeared to stand alone against the vandalism of the age. He and friends joined together to form the Victorian Society, and it was largely thanks to Betjeman that so much was saved. The wreckers tried to destroy the Albert Bridge: he saved it.
'They wanted to “develop” Bedford Park: he saved it. When I wrote his biography in 2006 one of the chief things which struck me about him was his generosity with time. He was never a rich man, and he never received a penny in payment for his conservation work. Yet most of his work time was spent in answering letters and campaigning to save threatened architecture. He travelled the length and breadth of the kingdoms, he made speeches, he wrote letters. He was tireless, and deeply serious (for all his larking around) about the damage being inflicted by the plansters, as he called them. Now we can all see that Betjeman was right and the modernists and the shysters were wrong. But I wonder whether we totally appreciate what motivated his vision......
'At heart, Betjeman was one of the most profoundly Christian men of his age. I sometimes think that the Church of England was saved in the 18th century by melancholy-mad, lazy layman Samuel Johnson; and in the 20th century – this is his third great achievement – by the chaotic and melancholy John Betj. He campaigned for old buildings because they were beautiful. But he also did so because, as a Christian man, he saw through the pernicious belief in so-called progress and economic “growth” which politicians have used to justify so many deeds of evil. Betjeman did not believe in “growth”. As a near-pacifist, he did not believe in patriotism or war or bossing.
'He was far from conservative in his views of sexual morals – being entirely on the side of persecuted homosexuals, for example. His poems, and the letters edited by his daughter Candida Lycett Green, are full of understanding of sex and love, and of the need for the “sexual revolution”. He was a puncturer of humbug. He could not have been such an eloquent prophet for our times if he had not himself been a broken man, with, in effect, two wives, of whom he was very fond, and whose pain wracked him with ineffectual guilt.
'He had a depressive temperament, ill health and no money; while being, as one of his close friends said to me once, a man of “blinding charm” and hilarity. ...'
We have a poem to share, by Betjeman, which illustrates some of the points made by A. N. Wilson.
The title is "Executive", and here is the text:
'I am a young executive. No cuffs than mine are cleaner;
I have a Slimline brief-case and I use the firm's Cortina.
In every roadside hostelry from here to Burgess Hill
The maitres d'hфtel all know me well, and let me sign the bill.
'You ask me what it is I do. Well, actually, you know,
I'm partly a liaison man, and partly P.R.O.
Essentially, I integrate the current export drive
And basically I'm viable from ten o'clock till five.
'For vital off-the-record work - that's talking transport-wise -
I've a scarlet Aston-Martin - and does she go? She flies!
Pedestrians and dogs and cats, we mark them down for slaughter.
I also own a speedboat which has never touched the water.
'She's built of fibre-glass, of course. I call her 'Mandy Jane'
After a bird I used to know - No soda, please, just plain -
And how did I acquire her? Well, to tell you about that
And to put you in the picture, I must wear my other hat.
'I do some mild developing. The sort of place I need
Is a quiet country market town that's rather run to seed
A luncheon and a drink or two, a little savoir faire -
I fix the Planning Officer, the Town Clerk and the Mayor.
'And if some Preservationist attempts to interfere
A 'dangerous structure' notice from the Borough Engineer
Will settle any buildings that are standing in our way -
The modern style, sir, with respect, has really come to stay.'
Betjeman is gone. I don't know about Britain.
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