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Risqué death in Metro-land

Just before reaching Pinner in his television film Metro-land, John Betjeman called in at Grims Dyke, the house where WS Gilbert died in what could be seen as a rather risqué manner. That, on top of...

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John Betjeman's fan letter to Gilbert Harding

A letter by John Betjeman is for sale. I might have bought it if I had a spare £225. It is to Gilbert Harding, the television broadcaster who made a hit with his irascibility and sharpness. Bevis...

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John Betjeman on Andy Murray's behaviour at Wimbledon

Wimbledon has its own poet in residence, Matt Harvey. He was on Today this morning. Since he rhymes Wimbledon with "tingled in" he might not please the more traditional audiences at the event. By...

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Being Poet Laureate ruins your poetry: just look at Carol Ann Duffy

Picture Professor Andrew Motion, soigné as ever; caressing syllables in rather a small study at the University of East Anglia. "There may be some rather significant news, Peter. But it's something of a...

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Half the civil service has a CBE. It's not surprising Evelyn Waugh and Graham...

Should writers accept honours from the state? Kipling, though generally regarded, I suppose, if mistakenly, as a pillar of the Establishment, believed they shouldn’t. He accepted the Nobel Prize for...

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Barns are our rural cathedrals

John Betjeman called it the Cathedral of Middlesex, and the romantic old poet wasn’t using poetic licence. Grade I-listed Manor Farm Barn in Harmondsworth – which English Heritage has just saved from...

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Are the bishops sitting comfortably?

We were going to go, on the off-chance, to The Messiah at Saint James's, Piccadilly, on Saturday night, but then considered the horror of the pews and decided to have a Thai in Chelsea instead. So...

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