“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
Quintessentially English, Betjeman was an ‘outsider’ in England – and doubly so in Cornwall where, as he was the first to admit, he was a ‘foreigner’. And yet, as this book describes, Betjeman also strove to acquire a veneer of ‘Cornishness’, cultivating an alternative Celtic identity, and finding inspiration in Cornwall’s Anglo-Catholic tradition.
He was also active in Cornish affairs, insisting that Cornwall was not part of England, and championing Cornish environmental concerns that anticipated today’s focus on sustainability.
The new research in this book includes a wealth of previously ignored source material, forming a lively new account of Betjeman’s life and work and his defining relationship with Cornwall. This book is likely to be controversial and to provoke debate.
Tabla de materias
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
Sobre el autor
Philip Payton is Emeritus Professor in the University of Exeter and Professor of History at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, and is the former Director of the Institute of Cornish Studies in the University of Exeter. He edited Cornish Studies, published annually from 1993-2013, the only series of publications that seeks to investigate and understand the complex nature of Cornish identity, as well as to discuss its implications for society and governance in contemporary Cornwall.
He has written extensively on Cornish topics, and recent books include A.L. Rowse and Cornwall: A Paradoxical Patriot (2005), Making Moonta: The Invention of Australia’s Little Cornwall (2007), John Betjeman and Cornwall: ‘The Celebrated Cornish Nationalist’ (2010), and (edited with Alston Kennerley and Helen Doe), The Maritime History of Cornwall (2014). He has recently been awarded South Australian Historian of the Year 2017 by the History Council of South Australia.
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