Betjeman's Cornwall

It’s 50 years since Sir John Betjeman was appointed Poet Laureate by Her Majesty Elizabeth II. Pat Coulter takes a close look at his life and the landscape he loved.

THE appointment of John Betjeman, poet, broadcaster, self-confessed church crawler" and champion for grand Victorian edifices, as Poet Laureate led him to follow in the footsteps of greats such as William Wordsworth and Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Betjeman particularly admired Tennyson's stirring "The Charge Of The Light Brigade" and realised it was a daunting challenge to emulate such greatness.

For a poet who drew much of his inspiration from keen observation and a heartfelt passion for England's landscape with good humour and witticism, writing by Royal Command with pomp and circumstance was very different indeed.

He readily admitted to downing four whiskies whilst travelling by train from Manchester to London in order to encourage creative flow from his pen, scribing suitable uplifting verse in tribute to Princess Anne's betrothal to Captain Mark Phillips!

He was much happier within his beloved Cornish landscape, which he'd been visiting since early childhood, and where he eventually settled in a robust little cottage hewn from Cornish stone by the sea.

His wonderfully descriptive "Summoned By Bells" captures well his early life of carefree days amongst the beaches and dunes near the tiny hamlet of Trebetherick on the shores of the Camel Estuary.

Born in 1906 in north London, John Betjeman was an only child and would regularly escape the city smoke of London to the fresh, clean, bracing air of Cornwall with his parents.

It was far away from the taunting schoolboys who jeered at his Germanicsounding surname, although his family were in fact of Dutch origin.

The young John was taught by poet T.S. Eliot, later to become famous for "The Waste Land".

He recalled being certain, as soon as he could read and write, that he wanted to become a poet - much to the chagrin of his poor father, who had had high hopes of his boy eventually taking over the family's fine furniture making business.