Trains and Buttered Toast

By John Betjeman

Book Overview

Eccentric, sentimental and homespun, John Betjeman's passions were mostly self-taught. He saw his country being devastated by war and progress and he waged a private war to save it. His only weapons were words--the poetry for which he is best known and, even more influential, the radio talks that first made him a phenomenon. From fervent pleas for provincial preservation to humoresques on eccentric vicars and his own personal demons, Betjeman's talks combined wit, nostalgia and criticism in a way that touched the soul of his listeners from the 1930s to the 1950s. Now, collected in book form for the first time, his broadcasts represent one of the most compelling archives of 20th-century broadcasting.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0719561264
• ISBN13: 9780719561269
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: John Murray
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.3" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

A nostalgic journey back to the golden days of travel and broadcasting

This is a most enjoyable read for anyone interested in John Betjeman or indeed anyone longing back to the times when trains had windows that would open! Stephen Games has skilfully edited JB's talks broadcasted by the BBC during a period of 40+ years. The range of topics, clearly indicating the diversity of the broadcaster, poet and architectual buff ( self taught), range from the wit of Wordsworth to a lament of modernism encroaching on metropolitan and rural life with many interesting talks covered in between. Anyone interest in " how we lived then" should buy this book now. Michael Roodyn