Betjeman: The Bonus of Laughter - Couverture rigide

Hillier, Bevis

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0719564956 ISBN 13 : 9780719564956

Editeur : John Murray, 2004

Synopsis

Betjeman: The Bonus Of Laughter

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

Hillier's enthralling, many-voiced biography is an awesome achievement. But it is no more than Betjeman's due (John Carey, Sunday Times)

Not the least of Betjamin's achievements was to secure Bevis Hillier as his biographer...a monumental study (Times Literary Supplement)

A triumph (Spectator)

An awe-inspiring piece of scholarship, presented with touching warmth and affection ... Betjeman has had the best and most sympathetic biographer he could have wished for (Artemis Cooper, Evening Standard)

Betjeman's place is not just in literature. As Hillier's detailed, often hilarious, and very poignant Ordnance Survey map suggest, Betjeman is also significant in the history of English society and taste, a 20th century addition to that very special gallery which includes Dr Johnson, Horace Walpole and Oscar Wilde (Duncan Fallowell, The Express)

Fascinating (Humphrey Carpenter, Sunday Times)

Hillier's monumental approach to biography would be justified, because he paints not just an individual but a species ... Hillier's enthralling, many-voiced biography, the fruit of 28 years' research and inquiry, is an awesome achievement. But it is no more than Betjeman's due. (John Carey, Sunday Times)

Strikes just the right note. (Telegraph)

It is part of Mr Hillier's achievement that, while laying bare so many of Betjeman's foibles ... one still thinks of him as a great man. (Country Life)

A mosaic in which the true face of the man and his time is revealed (Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday)

Présentation de l'éditeur :

John Betjeman was the most read of living poets and, at his death in 1984, was the most loved. Here he is portrayed by Bevis Hillier in 'one of the richest and most entertaining biographies of recent times.'

In this final volume, Betjeman is at the height of his fame, universally adopted as Teddy Bear to the Nation. By now he is known not just as a poet, but as a television personality too. He is also the essential public face of conservation, fighting - not always with great efficiency or success - to save our heritage. We live with him the triumph of Summoned by Bells, his richly emotional autobiography in verse, but also follow his tribulations as Poet Laureate, despairingly in search of inspiration in the bombastic events of royal and public life. Perhaps least expected of all is the pleasure he found in Banana Blush, the poems he recorded to the music of Jim Parker.

As before, Bevis Hillier reveals the origins of Betjeman's most loved poems; brings to life his loves and enthusiasms; shows how important his religion, his love of laughter and his often hidden kindnesses were in his life; and reminds us of his particular hates.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: John Murray
• Date d'édition: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0719564956
• ISBN 13: 9780719564956
• Reliure: Relié
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 768