Harvest Bells: New and Uncollected Poems by John Betjeman

Description

In December 1965, Sir John Betjeman wrote to his publisher Jock Murray 'I seem to have lost some of my manuscript poems as yet unpublished, or rather the typescripts of them.' Dr Kevin Gardner has claim to be the foremost contemporary Betjeman scholar and has been and remains assiduous in finding unpublished Betjeman verse. Our former poet laureate remains one of Britain's foremost and most loved poets. Who does not know of such lines as 'Come on ye bombs and fall on Slough', 'Phone for the fish knives Norman' and the celebrated Miss Joan Hunter Dunn- 'furnish`d and burnish'd by Aldershot sun'. Having already discovered in the BBC archives a whole collection of poems that Betjeman wrote for broadcast and published by Continuum as Poems in the Porch, here Dr Gardner has made new discoveries in places as distant as Christ Church, Oxford and Waco Texas. These poems which are witty and ooze with charm, will be seized upon by the numerous Betjeman fans worldwide and maybe bring a new generation of readers to his admirers.

Sir John Betjeman was born in 1906 and educated at Marlborough and Magdalen College, Oxford. He gave his first radio talk in 1932; future appearances made him into a national celebrity. He was knighted in 1969 and appointed poet laureate in 1972. He died in 1984. Dr Kevin Gardner is Professor of English at Baylor University, USA. As well as Poems in the Porch he has published with Continuum some critical books including Faith and Doubt of John Betjeman (Continuum 2011).

Kevin J Gardner has dug up 80 or so lost or neglected poems from the archives, which show the full range of Betjeman's oeuvre over half a century * The Sunday Times * A marvellous gathering of hitherto hidden Betjeman, varied and surprising * Anthony Thwaite, poet and editor of Philip Larkin's 'Collected Poems' * The Betjeman music, but satire, fear and dissonance are its vivid companions * Peter Scupham, poet *