Betjeman Read online

  Betjemann, John (JB’s grandfather)

  Betjeman, Lily (Paul-Linda’s daughter)

  Betjeman, Linda (née Shelton; Paul’s wife)

  Betjeman, Paul (JB’s son): estrangement from father; embraces Mormonism; birth; in Ireland; life at Farnborough; on effect of Penelope’s conversion on marriage; religious upbringing; mother tells to write separately to parents; at Eton; JB’s relations with; mother’s criticism of; moves to USA; musical interests and career; writes to JB in old age; mother visits in New York; later relations with JB; life in New York; marriage and children; visits England with fiancée; attends JB’s funeral

  Betjeman, Penelope, Lady (née Chetwode; JB’s wife): marriage relations; on JB’s father’s accent; pronunciation; background; meets JB at Architectural Review; and JB’s relations with other women; breaks off engagement to JB; marriage to JB; considers conversion to Catholicism; Indological interests; studies in Germany; supposed affair with Waugh; horses and riding; house-keeping; friendship with Berners; life at Uffington; religious commitment; Harton dismisses as church organist; in Ireland during war; enquires about Pipers’ religious life; father settles money and house on; life in Old Rectory, Farnborough; converts to Roman Catholicism; asks Waugh to discontinue letters to JB; attends Buckingham Palace garden party with father; and father’s death; attitude to sex; proposes moving from Farnborough; and JB’s relations with Elizabeth; warns JB of wasting life; runs King Alfred’s Kitchen in Wantage; relations with daughter Candida; accompanies JB to Cincinnati; letter of rebuke to JB; criticises son Paul; and upkeep of the Mead, Wantage; travels in Spain; revisits and travels in India; sympathy with Paul’s career; injured in motor accident; and JB’s gravitating towards celebrities; denounces gracious living; as JB’s widow at memorial service; separates from JB and leaves Wantage; buys and occupies cottage at Cusop; proposes sharing care of ageing JB with Elizabeth; spends Christmas 1972 with JB at Oakseys’; JB’s continuing love for; visits JB at Radnor Walk; at JB’s funeral; death in India; Two Middle-Aged Ladies in Andalusia

  Betjeman, Thomas (Paul-Linda’s son)

  Betjeman, Timothy (Paul-Linda’s son)

  Biddesden House, Hampshire

  Birkenhead, Frederick Furneaux Smith, 2nd Earl

  Bishop, Adrian

  Blackwood, Lady Caroline

  Blake, William

  Bland, Sister Mary

  Bloxham, John Francis: The Priest and the Acolyte

  Blue, Rabbi Lionel

  Blunt, Anthony: at Marlborough; at Lady Pamela Berry’s dinner party

  Bodley, G.F.

  Bosanquet, Theodora

  Boswell, James

  Bowen, Elizabeth

  Bowles, John

  Bowra, Sir Maurice: on Paul Betjeman’s becoming Mormon; serves in First World War; JB meets at Oxford; character and qualities; social life; denies Kolkhorst’s existence; on JB’s poetic talents; on Lord Chetwode’s mispronouncing JB’s name; friendship with Adrian Bishop; in Lancaster drawing; and Harton’s letter dismissing Penelope as organist; on Clarks; remembers Basil Dufferin and Ava; and Penelope’s admission to Roman Catholic church; as Duff Cooper Memorial Prize judge; recognises Penelope’s gifts; Memories

  Brennan, Diarmuid

  Brett, Lionel

  Brett-Smith, Herbert Francis Brett

  Bridle, Rev. George

  Bristol: JB’s television film on

  British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC): JB’s radio broadcasts for; JB makes TV films for

  British Council: JB works for in Oxford; organises JB’s 1961 visit to Australia

  Broad Street station, London

  Brompton Hospital, London

  Brown, T.E.

  Brownrigg, Commander (of Associated Rediffusion)

  Bryson, John

  Buchanan, Willie

  Bunning, James

  Burges, William

  Burgess, Guy

  Butler, Edmee

  Butler, Molly

  Byron, George Gordon, 6th Baron

  Byron, Robert: at Oxford; and Bryan Guinness; Penelope entertains in India

  C.

  Caernarfon

  Camden History Society

  Campbell, Roy

  Cardiff Castle

  Carpenter, Harry, Bishop of Oxford

  Carpenter, Humphrey

  Carrington, Dora

  Catholic Apostolic Church (Irvingites)

  Cavendish, Lady Elizabeth (‘Feeble’): as JB’s life-companion; on JB’s popular appeal; meets and falls in love with JB; qualities; proposes marriage to Pryce-Jones; home at 19 Radnor Walk, Chelsea; social work; as Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Margaret; Penelope resents relations with JB; in Rotherhithe Street; and Princess Margaret’s engagement and marriage to Armstrong-Jones; visits Germany with JB; JB makes over Trebetherick house to; friendship with John Osborne and Mary Ure; holidays abroad with JB; JB sketches; accompanies JB to Australia (1971); and Julian Jebb; attends JB’s memorial service; refuses to meet Penelope; buys Radnor Walk house for JB; churchgoing; Penelope proposes sharing care of ageing JB with; and Paul’s letter to JB; guilt towards Penelope; nurses JB in declining years; on JB’s death

  Cecil, Lord David

  Channel, Anne

  Charles, Prince of Wales: investiture

  Chatsworth House, Derbyshire

  Chelsea see Church Street; Radnor Walk

  Cherwell Edge (house), Oxford

  Cherwell (magazine)

  Chetwode, Alice Hester Camilla, Lady (Penelope’s mother): disapproves of JB as match for Penelope; JB’s attitude to; visits Pipers

  Chetwode, Field Marshal Sir Philip, 1st Baron (Penelope’s father): Penelope’s love for; on Penelope’s marriage to JB; JB’s attitude to; as C. in C. in India; visits Pipers; and JB’s hopes of wartime employment; buys Old Rectory, Farnborough for Penelope; settles money on Penelope; stays with Betjemans at Farnborough house; on JB’s attachment to Patrick Cullinan; attends royal garden party with Penelope; death

  Chetwode, Roger (Penelope’s brother)

  Church of England: JB’s devotion to; parish churches; dissent in

  Church of England Ramblers (group)

  Church Street, Chelsea

  Churchill, Diana

  Churchill, John

  Churchill, Randolph: at Oxford; and Bryan Guinness; JB lodges with in London; and Edward James; introduces Connolly and Quennell to White’s Club; writes for Evening Standard

  Churchill, (Sir) Winston

  Cincinnati, University of: JB’s post as Poet in Residence

  City of London Festival (1962)

  Clandeboye (house), County Down

  Clark, Kenneth, Baron: JB meets at Oxford; and JB’s wartime employment

  Clarke, Marcus: For the Term of His Natural Life

  Clonmore, William Forward-Howard, Baron (later 8th Earl of Wicklow; ‘Billy’; ‘Cracky’): JB meets at Oxford; Irish background; entertains JB in Ireland; on Kolkhorst; friendship with JB; and JB’s father in Ireland; on Kolkhorst’s death

  Cloth Fair, London: JB lives in; fire

  Coal Exchange, London

  Cockerell, Sir Charles

  Cockerell, Samuel Pepys

  Coghill, Nevill

  Colefax, Sibyl, Lady

  Combe Florey, Somerset

  Comper, Sir Ninian: JB champions; designs Basil Dufferin memorial at Clandeboye; JB wins knighthood for; church designs; restores sanctuary at Grosvenor Chapel

  Compton Beauchamp church, Berkshire

  Connolly, Cyril: and Bowra; Randolph Churchill introduces to White’s Club; publishes JB’s ‘Subaltern’s Love Song’ in Horizon

  Constantinidis, Michael

  Cooper, Lady Diana

  Copenhagen: JB on cruise to

  Copleston, Frederick, SJ

  Cornwall: JB’s attachment to; Shell Guide to; see also St Endellion’s church; St Enodoc’s church; Trebetherick

  Cowper, William

  Cresswell, Billa see Harrod, Wilhelmine, Lady

  Cudlipp,
Percy

  Cullinan, Patrick

  Cusop see New House, Cusop

  D.

  Daily Express: on JB’s marriage relations

  Daily Herald: JB writes reviews for

  Daily Telegraph: JB writes reviews for

  Dali, Salvador

  Day-Lewis, Cecil

  Denmark: JB visits; see also Copenhagen

  Dennistoun, Victoria (Tory) see Oaksey, Victoria, Lady

  Dent, Anita

  de Paula, Hugh Francis Macklin

  Desert Island Discs (radio programme)

  de Valera, Eamon

  Devonshire, Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of

  Devonshire, Deborah, Duchess of (née Mitford)

  Devonshire, Edward Cavendish, 10th Duke of

  Devonshire, Mary Alice, Dowager Duchess of (née Cecil; ‘Moucher’; Elizabeth’s mother)

  Dickens, Charles

  Dimbleby, David

  ‘Discovering Britain’ (TV film series)

  Douglas, Lord Alfred: relations with Wilde; JB praises; JB’s correspondence and friendship with; reproaches Yeats; death in war

  Dragon School, Oxford

  Driberg, Tom (later Baron Bradwell): at Oxford; checks JB’s poetry; and Edward James; friendship with JB

  Dublin: JB serves as wartime press attaché in

  Duff Cooper Memorial Prize

  Dufferin and Ava, Basil Blackwood, 4th Marquess of: friendship with JB; JB’s feelings for; and Edward James; JB’s poem to; killed in Burma; memorial

  Dufferin and Ava, Maureen, Marchioness of (née Guinness)

  Dugdale, Colonel Arthur

  Dugdale, Ethel

  Dugdale, John

  Dunn, Joan Hunter (later Jackson)

  Dunsinea House, Castleknock, near Dublin

  E.

  Eden, F.C.

  Edensor, Derbyshire see Moor View

  Edward VIII, King (later Duke of Windsor)

  Edward, Prince (later Earl of Wessex)

  Eliot, Thomas Stearns: teaches JB as schoolboy; influence as poet; and symbolism; C.S. Lewis mocks; modernism; and JB’s campaign for knighthood for Comper; letter from JB on Jill Menzies; religious convictions; death; JB writes to on stay at St Michael’s College

  Elizabeth the Queen Mother

  Elkington, George

  Empson, (Sir) William

  Erskine, Mary St Clair

  Etchells, Frederick

  Eusden, Laurence

  Euston Arch, London

  Evans, Myfanwy see Piper, Myfanwy

  Evening Standard: JB writes for

  Ewart, Kenneth

  Eyres-Monsell, Graham

  Eyres-Monsell, Joan

  Ezard, John

  F.

  Faber & Faber (publishers; formerly Faber & Gwyer)

  Face to Face (TV programme)

  Face Your Image (TV programme)

  Faringdon House, Berkshire

  Farnborough, Berkshire: Old Rectory

  Farrer, Stewart: Pity About the Abbey (play, with JB)

  Fawley Bottom, near Henley; see also Piper, John

  Fermor, Patrick Leigh: on JB lecturing to King’s School, Canterbury; JB’s poem on

  Ferrers, Robert Walter Shirley, 12th Earl

  Fleetwood-Hesketh, Peter

  Fleming, Peter

  Foran, Phyllis

  Fox, James

  France: JB holidays in

  Fraser, Lady Antonia (née Pakenham)

  Freeman, John

  Froude, James Anthony

  Furness (house), Naas, Co. Kildare

  G.

  Gaitskell, Dora, Baroness

  Gaitskell, Hugh, friendship with JB

  Gallagher, Frank

  Gardner, Helen

  Garland, Patrick

  Garrard’s Farm, Uffington; see also Uffington

  Gaskell, Rev. John

  George V, King: death

  Georgian Group

  Germany: JB visits with Elizabeth

  Gidney, A.R.

  Gielgud, (Sir) John

  Gill, Rev. Colin

  Gilliatt, Penelope

  Glenconner, Christopher Grey Tennant, 2nd Baron

  Glenton, William

  Goldsmith, Oliver: The Deserted Village

  Goodenough, Jackie

  Goodwin, George: The Churches of London

  Gore-Ouseley, Sir Frederick

  Graham, Mr and Mrs E.R.B.

  Grant, Duncan

  Great Eastern Hotel, Liverpool Street

  Green, Henry see Yorke, Henry

  Green ’Un, The (Admiralty publication)

  Greene, Graham

  Grigson, Geoffrey

  Grisewood, Harman

  Gropius, Walter

  Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street, London

  Guest, John; (ed.) The Best of Betjeman

  Guinness, Bryan (later 2nd Baron Moyne): engagement and marriage to Diana Mitord; JB meets at Oxford; poetry; intercedes for JB in broken engagement to Penelope; admires JB’s genius; praises JB’s poetry

  Gurney, Samuel

  Guyatt, Richard

  H.

  Hakewill, J.H.

  Harding, Gilbert

  Hardy, H.K.

  Harris, E. Vincent

  Harrod, (Sir) Roy

  Harrod, Wilhelmine, Lady (née Cresswell; ‘Billa’): on JB’s popular appeal; JB meets and falls for; disapproves of JB’s relations with Elizabeth; JB visits in Norfolk; on marriage; letter from Elizabeth on JB’s last months; Norfolk (Shell Guide)

  Harrow School

  Harton, Rev. Francis; Elements of the Spiritual Life

  Harton, Sibyl

  Hastings, Hubert de Cronin: controls Architectural Review; avoids Penelope; attends JB-Penelope wedding

  Hastings, Maurice

  Hastings, Percy

  Hawker, Rev. Robert Stephen

  Haynes, Gerard (‘Tortoise’)

  Heber-Percy, Robert

  Heddon Court (school), Barnet

  Helena, St

  Hemphill, Emily, Lady see Villiers-Stuart, Emily

  Hemphill, Martyn Charles Andrew, 4th Baron

  Henry V (film)

  Higgins, Molly

  Highgate, London: JB’s childhood in

  Highgate Junior School

  Hitler, Adolf: death

  Hobart, Tasmania

  Holden, Charles

  Holmes, Helen

  Holy Land: JB’s film on

  Holy Trinity church, Sloane Street, Chelsea

  homosexuality: JB’s attraction to; public attitude to

  Hood, Canon Frederic: friendship with JB; recommends JB’s secretaries; decline and death

  Hope, Isabel

  Hope, John Humphrey

  Hornby, Sir Antony

  Hornby, Edward

  Hornby, Michael

  Housman, A.E.

  Howard, Brian

  Howard, Elizabeth Jane

  Huddleston, Father Trevor (later Archbishop)

  Hughes, Christopher

  Hughes, Richard

  Humphries, Barry

  Hyde, Harford Montgomery

  Hymns Ancient and Modern

  I.

  India: Penelope in

  Information, Ministry of: JB’s wartime post in

  Ingrams, Richard

  IRA: supposed assassination plans for JB

  Ireland: JB visits; and Anglo-Irish aristocracy; see also Dublin

  Irvine, Gerard

  J.

  James, Edward

  James, Canon Eric

  James, Evie

  Jarvis, Rev. Harry

  Jarvis, Jean (née Cunliffe; ‘the Smasher’)

  Jarvis, Rebekah

  Jebb, Julian

  Jennings, Alice

  Jerome, Jerome K.

  Jerusalem: JB visits

  Joad, C.E.M.

  John, Augustus

  Johnson, David

  Johnson, Samuel

  Johnson, Rev. Wilfrid

  Jones, Monica

 
Jowitt, R.L.P.

  K.

  Keats, John

  Keele: University College of North Staffordshire

  Kelham Fathers (Adelaide, Australia)

  Kennedy, Norah

  Kilvert, Rev. Francis

  King Alfred’s Kitchen see Wantage

  King’s College Hospital, London

  Kinross, Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron: friendship with JB; and JB’s view of Plunkett; and JB’s writing for Evening Standard; and JB’s visit to Elizabeth’s mother

  Kipling, Rudyard

  Knapp-Fisher, James

  Knight, Hester

  Knox, Monsignor Ronald

  Kolkhorst, ‘Colonel’ George: at Oxford; on JB’s falling in love; friendship with JB; death

  L.

  Lancaster, Karen

  Lancaster, (Sir) Osbert: JB meets at Oxford; on JB’s taking Welsh at Oxford; describes JB; on JB and Randolph Churchill; drawing of JB and friends singing; friendship with Pipers and JB; and JB’s infatuation with Joan Hunter Dunn; writes to JB in Ireland; on Waugh’s supposed affair with Penelope; on JB’s religious commitment; JB stays with; on JB combining married and bachelor life; survives; and Church of England Ramblers; and JB’s relations with Gaitskell

  Lane, Margaret (later Countess of Huntingdon)

  Larkin, Philip: bleakness; praises JB’s Summoned by Bells; friendship with JB; on effect of parents on children; on JB appointment as Poet Laureate; death and will; The Whitsun Wedding

  Larkworthy, Joan

  Larkworthy, Tom

  Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret)

  Lee, Bolton & Lee, the Sanctuary, Westminster

  Leeds: Civic Hall

  Lees-Milne, James: on JB’s attachment to Basil Dufferin; and JB’s sexual tastes; on Penelope’s visits to JB in Radnor Walk; on JB’s funeral; Worcestershire (Shell Guide)

  Levin, Bernard

  Lewis, Clive Staples: serves in First World War; tutors JB at Oxford; character and qualities; admires Edmund Spenser; recommends JB for pass degree; exasperated by JB’s humour; religious beliefs

  Lewisham town hall

  Liverpool Street station, London

  Lloyd, John

  Lloyd George, David

  Lockhart, Sir Robert Bruce

  London: in JB’s childhood; bombed in war; see also City of London Festival; Cloth Fair; Radnor Walk

  Longford, Elizabeth, Countess of (née Harman)

  Longford, Francis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of

  Lopez, Father

  Losch, Tilly

  Loy, Myrna

  Lucas, Canon John

  Lurot family

  Lycett Green, Candida (née Betjeman; JB-Penelope’s daughter): birth; life at Farnborough; on parents’ religious faith; friendship with Anne Baring; religious upbringing; on JB’s hospital visiting at Bart’s; on JB’s friendship with Gilbert Harding; relations with parents; leaves school and goes to Italy; as debutante; pregnancies and children; marriage; interviews Harry Jarvis; protests at proposed Wing airport; letters from JB in Australia; spends Christmas 1972 with JB at Oakseys’; visits JB in hospital; organises Elizabeth’s and Penelope’s hospital visits to JB; visits JB in Trebetherick; attends JB’s funeral