John Betjeman was the best-loved English poet since Tennyson and became an institution - a 'teddy bear to the nation'.

This biography takes the reader from Betjeman's troubled childhood in north London, through his blossoming at Oxford; a gay fling with W. H. Auden; a clandestine marriage to a field marshal's daughter; pranks as a film critic; wartime service and probable espionage in Ireland, to the glory days of his later years when his Collected Poems became a runaway bestseller. This book is a distillation of Bevis Hillier's three-volume biography, authorized by Betjeman himself.

"'[Hillier] has unearthed a wealth of detail and anecdote.'" - Glasgow Herald

"'This user-friendly trade paperback... will be welcomed as a crucial reference work by students and aficionados alike'" - Oxford Times

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

"Fascinating" - Humphrey Carpenter, Sunday Times

"Sharply perceptive ... compelling ... A biography this good abolishes time in its own way, and triumphantly ensures Betjeman's survival" - Peter Conrad, Observer

"A mosaic in which the true face of the man and his times is revealed" - Mail on Sunday

"The chubbiest, juiciest book of the year" - Barry Humphries, Daily Telegraph

"Strikes just the right note." - Telegraph

"An awe-inspiring piece of scholarship ... Betjeman has had the best and most sympathetic biographer he could have wished for" - Artemis Cooper, Evening Standard

"A triumph" - Spectator

"Hilarious and very poignant" - Duncan Fallowell, Express

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

"A pleasure to read and use." - Evening Standard

"Immensely detailed, intelligent, generous, sympathetic, and often entertaining" - Allan Massie, Literary Review

"'[Hillier] has unearthed a wealth of detail and anecdote'" - Glasgow Herald

"'A fine portrait of a vulnerable, acerbic man with a teddy.'" - BBC History

"'John Betjeman remains extremely popular'" - BBC History

"'A stupendous work in many ways'" - Daily Telegraph

"'Bevis Hillier's fine biography joins the jubilations'" - The Times/Books

"'Where anyone interested in Betjeman will dig happily away'" - Sunday Telegraph/Seven

"'Hillier's [biography] has a wealth of often-hilarious detail that Wilson never touches on'" - Tim Martin, Daily Telegraph