By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Sir John Betjeman (1906-1984) was UK Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death, and became one of Britain’s best-loved poets of the twentieth century. When his Collected Poems was published in 1955, it was a bestseller. Below is our selection of Betjeman’s best poems, along with a short summary of each poem and a link to where you can read it. Do you agree with this list?
We’ve arranged them in roughly chronological order, rather than attempting to rank them in a ‘best to worst’ or ‘worst to best’ order. What would you pick as Betjeman’s best poem?