List of Illustrations
Preface
Preamble: 'The Sky Widens to a Sense of Cornwall'
1. 'That Bold Coast-line Where he was Not Born': John
Betjeman as 'foreigner'
2. 'Into Betjemanland': Imagining North Cornwall
3. 'The Oldest Part of Cornwall': Hawker, Baring-Gould and
'Betjeman Country'
4. 'Caverns of Light revealed the Holy Grail': Betjeman and
The Secret Glory
5. 'A Longing for Ireland': Sean O'Betjeman and the
'Anglo-Celtic Muse'
6. 'I'm Free! I'm Free!': Cornwall as Liberation
7. 'Jan Trebetjeman, The Cornish Clot': John Betjeman Goes
Native
Epilogue: 'When People talk to me about "The British"...I Give
Up'
Notes
Further Reading
Index
Philip Payton is Professor of Cornish & Australian
Studies in the University of Exeter and Director of the Institute
of Cornish Studies at the University’s Cornwall campus.
'In time, perhaps, books about Betjeman will be as frequent as
books about [T.S.] Eliot, if less solemn.'
William Plomer, writing in the Guardian, 7 April 1961
'I was one of the 8,000-strong 'Betjemaniacs' gathered at Carruan
farm in Cornwall in August 2006 to celebrate the hundredth birthday
of Sir John Betjeman, the late Poet Laureate. Situated high above
Polzeath, with tremendous views out to the azure Atlantic and the
great headland of Pentire, Carruan was, with its exhilarating sense
of space, an inspirational choice for this great event. I stood in
the pasty-queue with the Archbishop of Canterbury, watched the
poetic performance of Bert Biscoe, and browsed among the bookstalls
in the hope of finding second-hand copies of rare Betjeman books to
add to my collection. Here was that Patrick Taylor-Martin volume
that had eluded me for years, and Betjeman's Britain - compiled by
Candida Lycett Green, Betjeman's daughter - together with more
recent editions of old favourites.'
Philip Payton, in the preface to John Betjeman and Cornwall
'All Betjeman addicts should add this to their Christmas list.'
The Betjeman Society Newsletter, Dec 2010, No. 80
‘Payton’s masterful new book’
‘John Betjeman and Cornwall is a brilliant assessment of Betjeman’s
Cornish imagination and an important contribution to the ongoing
scholarly re-evaluation of Betjeman.’
English Studies 93.1, February 2012
‘…as meticulously researched and documented as we have come to
expect’
‘Betjeman remains endearing and elusive- and challenging. It is the
value of Prof. Payton’s scholarly book that he extends our
perspectives and expands the debate.’
Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries, Volume XL- Part IX, Spring
2011, John Hurst
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