John Betjeman Quotes

Sir John Betjeman was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack". He was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1972 until his death.

He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture. He began his career as a journalist and ended it as one of the most popular British Poets Laureate and a much-loved figure on British television. Wikipedia  

✵ 28. August 1906 – 19. May 1984  •  Other names Sir John Betjeman

Works

Slough
John Betjeman
Slough
John Betjeman
John Betjeman: 30 quotes4 likes

Famous John Betjeman Quotes

“And marbled clouds go scudding by
The many-steepled London sky.”

John Betjeman

Source: Selected Poems

“It was through looking at churches that I came to believe in the reason churches were built.”

John Betjeman

The Best of Betjeman, John Guest, Penguin Modern Classics, 1985. Written in 1948. (Blisland)

“One mark of good verse is surprise.”

John Betjeman

Radio Talk. BBC Radio 4 (2 August 1978)

John Betjeman Quotes

“I ought to warn you that my verse is of no interest to people who can think.”

John Betjeman

Radio Talk. BBC Third Programme (1949)

“We sat in the car park till twenty to one
And now I'm engaged to Miss Joan Hunter Dunn.”

John Betjeman

"A Subaltern's Love-song" line 43.
Poetry

“Hymn tunes are the nearest we've got to English folk music.”

John Betjeman

citation needed

“Hymns are the poetry of the people.”

John Betjeman

Radio Talk: BBC Radio (4 July 1975)

“Stony seaboard, far and foreign,
Stony hills poured over space,
Stony outcrop of the Burren,
Stones in every fertile place.”

John Betjeman

"In Ireland with Emily" from New Bats in Old Belfries.
Poetry

“He sipped at a weak hock and seltzer
As he gazed at the London skies
Through the Nottingham lace of the curtains
Or was it his bees-winged eyes?”

John Betjeman

"The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel" line 1, from Continual Dew.
Poetry

“Yes, I haven't had enough sex.”

John Betjeman

In an interview for the television documentary Time With Betjeman (February 1983), having been asked whether he had any regrets. <br class="br">As quoted in: Ned Sherrin, Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations http://books.google.gr/books?id=5q4XBa5jsy8C&amp;dq=, Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 286

“It's strange that those we miss the most
Are those we take for granted.”

John Betjeman

"The Hon. Sec." line 39, from High and Low (1966).
Poetry

“I am a young executive. No cuffs than mine are cleaner;
I have a Slimline brief-case and I use the firm's Cortina.”

John Betjeman

"Executive" line 1, from A Nip in the Air (1974).
Poetry

“But I'm dying now and done for,
What on earth was all the fun for?
I am ill and old and terrified and tight.”

John Betjeman

"Sun and Fun — Song of a Night-club Proprietress", from A Few Late Chrysanthemums.
Poetry

“Ghastly Good Taste, or a Depressing Story of the Rise and Fall of English Architecture.”

John Betjeman

Title and sub-title of book (1933)

Similar authors

Richard Aldington photo
Richard Aldington5
English writer and poet None
Rudyard Kipling photo
Rudyard Kipling200
English short-story writer, poet, and novelist None
Fernando Pessoa photo
Fernando Pessoa288
Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publi… None
Peter Ustinov photo
Peter Ustinov59
English actor, writer, and dramatist None
Mario Benedetti photo
Mario Benedetti4
Uruguayan journalist, novelist, and poet None
P.G. Wodehouse photo
P.G. Wodehouse302
English author None
Samuel Beckett photo
Samuel Beckett122
Irish novelist, playwright, and poet None
Aldous Huxley photo
Aldous Huxley290
English writer None
Virginia Woolf photo
Virginia Woolf382
English writer None
Juan Ramón Jimenéz photo
Juan Ramón Jimenéz18
Spanish poet None