Thanks to John Betjeman’s mordant, tender rhymes, Edwardian Essex and Twenties Oxford, Letchworth and Slough, Surrey and Muckby-cum-Sparrowby, Henley and Trebetherick are eternally peopled with tennis-playing girls and sweaty subalterns, impoverished Irish peers and Cortina-driving salesmen.
Preserved too are the great English verse forms: lyric and blank verse, doggerel and ditty. Betjeman could be Edward Lear and Wordsworth in a single poem. The centenary of his birth has produced many tributes to the “ruffled innocent” who sang England and the combined joy and pathos of small things.
A generous dose of his wit and wisdom is contained in John Betjeman: A First-Class Collection (BBC, CDs, £12.99, offer £11.69). Andrew Motion outlines Betjeman’s life and some critics’ views (deplored by T. S. Eliot, admired by Larkin), drawing attention to the seriousness underlying his flippancy and his achievement in championing Victorianism against modernism.
Then come 33 poems, some introduced and read by Betjeman himself, the rest by five distinguished voices: Derek Jacobi, Stephen Fry, Miriam Margoyles, Sarah Jameson and Samuel West.
Betjeman shared a century, a loathing for Marlborough College and a love of Oxford with the subject of an unusual portrait-
cum-history The Seafaring Irish: A Life of John de Courcy Ireland (Earth, CDs, £12.50, available from 00353-1 855 3282, earthpros@eircom.net).
Ireland ran away to sea, but took up a scholarship at Oxford, where he met his wife while cleaning up after a sooty excursion through its underground river. His independent mind and wide curiosity led to his working peacefully for Irish independence, supporting China against Japan and fundraising for the Spanish Civil War. He became a Dublin schoolteacher, the first serious historian of Irish maritime history and founder of the Irish Maritime Museum.
This interesting audiobook could set a trend for audio-
obituaries. It intercuts Ireland’s characterful voice with that of an actor, Barry McGovern, to tell his life story and that of Irish seafarers, an inspiring bunch including Neil of the Eight Hostages, Grace O’Malley, Sir Thomas Stuckley, Captain Bligh, and the explorers Parry and Shackleton, using passages from Ireland’s books.
The result is enthralling — history from an unfamiliar angle, enabling us to appreciate the strategic maritime importance to Britain of Ireland.
To buy audiobooks at offer price with free p&p, call 0870 1608080 or visit timesonline.co.uk/booksfirst
Audiobooks: John Betjeman
Christina Hardyment celebrates the wit of Betjeman