"On Friday 5 December the society welcomed Denis Moriarty to talk about
the life and
works of John Betjeman. This was an inspired choice because
Moriarty has studied one
of our most loved recent Poets Laureate;
clearly he respects the man, not just as
a poet but as one who put so much
effort into saving great Victorian
architecture.
An audience
of over forty packed the Lower Court Hall to hear Denis take us
in less than ninety minutes from
Betjeman's birth in Highgate in 1906 to his death in 1984.
The only child of a cabinet maker, Betjeman had a
lonely childhood that was lit up by several
holiday visits to Cornwall. His
schooling in Highgate and Oxford led him to
board at Marlborough College before
going up to Magdalen College, Oxford. There
he failed a Divinity exam - enjoying the
less academic parts of undergraduate
life - and did not complete his degree.
That did not prevent him taking a couple
of Prep school teaching posts.
Aged 24 he joined "The
Architectural Review" as assistant editor
and a year
later published his first book of poems.
Soon afterward he met and married
Penelope Chetwode, daughter of a Field
Marshal who disliked his new son-in-law.
Mr Moriarty illustrated this biography
with pictures of several of the couple's
homes before they settled in Uffington,
Berkshire. There Betjeman wrote more poetry,
commentaries on architecture and began
his definitive series of Shell Guides to
the Counties of England; with some of
the earliest examples of English
landscape colour photography
accompanying Betjeman's text.
His prolific writing took him to Dublin
in 1941 as Press Officer to the British
Representative - later it was said that
when the IRA read his poetry he was
saved from assassination as a spy
!! Coming back to England in 1943 he
worked
for the Ministry of Information and
continued writing for several publications.
John, Penelope and their nine year old
daughter, Candida, settled in Wantage in
1951.
North Coast near Padstow was a place for
relaxation, more writing and escape
from the pressures of frequent
appearances on the wireless and television.
"Collected Poems" in 1958 and
an autobiography in verse,"Summoned by Bells" in
1960 established his poetic authority, and he continued to make architectural
salvation a vital part of his prodigious
output, especially for decaying English
Parish Churches.
He parted from Penelope and for 33 years was accompanied and
supported by
Lady Elizabeth Cavendish. He also evidently had a four year relationship with
Margie Geddes in the 1970s. He was knighted in 1969
and made Poet
Laureate in 1972 but did not welcome the
need to write verse to order for
specific Royal or National occasions.
The last few years of his life were
spent
more and more in Cornwall with his
mobility limited by Parkinson's disease; he
died there aged 77 and is buried in the
little church of St. Enodoc in the sand
dunes of Daymer Bay, near his home in
Trebetherick.
Angela Hill, who introduced us to Denis Moriarty, with JB at St Pancras
Denis Moriarty is an accomplished
lecturer and tutor in subjects musical and
architectural; he was a director and
producer in the Arts and Music sections of
BBC Television for several years -
introducing viewers to much-loved programmes
such as a series on ENGLISH TOWNS with
Alec Clifton Taylor,
FACE THE MUSIC with Joseph Cooper and
Joyce Grenfell and ONE HUNDRED
GREAT PAINTINGS. His enthusiasm for John Betjeman was
infectious, spell-binding
and eye-catching with his various slides - only surpassed
for many of his listeners by his
delivery of several poems."
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