John Betjeman

‘Let us not speak, for the love we bear one another –Let us hold hands and look.’She, such a very ordinary woman;He, such a thumping crook;But both, for a moment, little lower than the angelsIn the teashop’s ingle-nook.– In a Bath TeashopSir John Betjeman (1906–84) was born in Highgate, the son of a manufacturer of Dutch descent. His poetry enjoyed immense popularity, as did his personality, and his knighthood in 1969 and appointment as Poet Laureate in 1972 were almost universally welcomed.