The Oldie

My dream job? The office Romeo with blondes on tap

John Betjeman was born into a middleclass family in Edwardian Hampstead.

His parents, Mabel and Ernest Betjemann (with the extra ‘n’), had a family firm which manufactured the kind of brown furniture and ornamental silver gadgets loved by the aspirational classes of the day.

A sensitive, lonely child, he knew early on that he would grow up to forswear his participation in the family business, in favour of poetry and his love of architecture. A mixture of snobbishness and guarded affection for the world of commerce

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