Life giving resources. Faithfully delivered.
FREE delivery on orders over £10
Serving over 2 million Christians in the UK
with Bibles, Books and Church Supplies
Our Buy-Now-Pay-Later accounts used
by over 4,000 UK Churches & Schools
Excellent 4.8 out of 5

Trustpilot

You now have 0 of this item in your basket

Poems In The Porch

The Radio Poems of John Betjeman [Paperback]

by Gardner Kevin

Author
Gardner Kevin
Book Format
Paperback
Publisher
Continuum
Published
November 2009

Read full description

Click to expand

Today's Price

£15.89

Free UK Delivery

Available - Usually dispatched within 4 days

Buying for a school or church? Upgrade to a FREE Eden Advance Account

Enter the product quantity

Poems In The Porch

Today's Price £15.89

Frequently Bought Together

Poems In The Porch

by Gardner Kevin

Paperback

More than Words

by Hannah Dunnett

Hardback

Add both to basket for £27.77

Product Description

The book represent a genuine and important discovery in the canon of Betjeman's poems, often considered closed with the publication of the "Complete Poems". Between 1953-57, John Betjeman read a series of poems on "The Faith in the West" program airing on the BBC's West of England Home Service. This series, called "Poems in the Porch", was so popular that Betjeman received constant requests to publish the poems. Although he deprecatingly referred to the poems as mere 'verses', Betjeman at last capitulated to the public. The result was a slim volume of six poems, entitled Poems in the Porch. What few people now realize is that Betjeman read at least 20 original poems on the radio in this series, perhaps even more, although owing to the haphazard records of both the BBC and Betjeman himself it is impossible to reconstruct with complete accuracy the history of this series. Kevin Gardner has been able to identify and collect 26 of these poems and has written a fascinating introductory essay recounting the story of Betjeman as a radio poet and discussing the artistry of these poems. Most have never been published and currently exist only in manuscript.Despite the gap between the BBC records on the one hand and the printed and manuscript texts on the other, Gardner has been able to construct a relatively reliable edition of "Betjeman's Poems in the Porch".