Betjeman studied English Language and Literature here at Magdalen College from 1925 till 1928. Though now one of our most celebrated alumni, he wasn’t a high-flying applicant to Oxford. He did poorly in his entrance exams – failing the scholarship component and deferring Maths altogether – but his poetry impressed the President of the College, Sir Herbert Warren, enough to earn him a place.
As a Magdalen student, Betjeman’s behaviour was so flamboyant, it inspired his friend and contemporary Evelyn Waugh to create the character of Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited. Betjeman spent his days in a silk dressing-gown, carried Archie everywhere, and attended endless fashionable parties. Though he continued to write impressive poetry, he struggled with his degree course and did not get on with his college tutor, who happened to be Magdalen’s most famous Fellow in English, C. S. Lewis. The strict and serious-minded Lewis found Betjeman’s frivolity irritating, referring to him as an “idle prig”.
When Betjeman failed a compulsory exam in his third year, Lewis refused to help him prepare for a resit. Betjeman tried several times to pass but ultimately was sent down from Oxford with no degree. The disappointment was crushing; Betjeman held a grudge against Lewis for the rest of his life. However, the University as a whole eventually changed its view of Betjeman, awarding him an Honorary Doctorate for his poetry in 1974.
Photo composite: ‘Magdalen men’ and a Mitford
The three photographs shown here belong to Bevis Hillier, Betjeman’s biographer, who used this composite to illustrate an article he wrote for the Magdalen College Record in 1989.
The left-hand image from 1893 shows Magdalen men Oscar Wilde and his lover, the poet Lord Alfred Douglas. The central image shows Betjeman, Douglas, and Nancy Mitford in 1930. Betjeman and Hillier, another Magdalen alumnus, are seen in the right-hand photograph from 1982 (by Tara Heinemann).
Magdalen College Archives, B/1/73
Letter from Betjeman to K B McFarlane, 1953
Some two decades after he left Magdalen, Betjeman was made a member of the Senior Common Room (SCR) in 1947, a privilege usually reserved for fellows of the college. Among the Magdalen fellows Betjeman got to know was historian Kenneth Bruce McFarlane (known as ‘Bruce’), the recipient of this letter dated 31 January 1953, featuring a particularly exuberant example of Betjeman’s signature.
Betjeman expresses his strong opposition to plans to plant a rose garden between the Oxford Botanic Gardens and High Street (‘awful suburbanisation’). The Lasker Rose Garden, planted despite Betjeman’s objections, endures to this day.
Magdalen College Archives, MS/1041/2
Letter featuring a sketch of Lionel Perry, 1 Sep 1932
Betjeman met Lionel Perry when the two were students together at Magdalen. They became lifelong friends and kept up a regular correspondence. In the mid-2000s, Betjeman’s letters to Perry were given to Magdalen College by Perry’s nephew, together with four books by Betjeman, all signed, including A Nip in the Air and Summoned by Bells.
Betjeman has drawn a sketch of Perry in this letter, with the affectionate caption ‘Old Li’.
Magdalen College Archives, P/323/C1/3A
Letter to Lionel Perry mentioning ‘my old Teddy Bear Archie’, 8 Feb 1968
In this letter to his old Magdalen friend Lionel Perry, Betjeman discusses Perry’s health and sketches what he imagines Letterkenny Hospital to look like. (Perry’s most recent letter to him was written from there.)
Betjeman’s fondness for Perry is evident in sentences like: “Your handwriting hasn’t changed, you dear old thing”; and “My old Teddy Bear Archie sends you his best wishes”.
Magdalen College Archives, P/323/C1/10
Letter to Lionel Perry containing reminiscences and lines of poetry about Magdalen College, 14 Mar 1980
Betjeman wrote this letter to his friend Lionel Perry in 1980, the year of Perry’s death. It begins with a reference to Perry’s declining health and goes on to reflect on Betjeman’s time at Magdalen, where he and Perry were students together (“the happiest days of my life”).
Enclosed is a poem by James Hurdis, an 18th-century fellow of Magdalen. Betjeman has added some lines of his own composition (line 9 onwards) about the bells of Oxford.
Magdalen College Archives, P/323/C1/21
First edition of Summoned by Bells (London: John Murray, 1960)
This autobiography-in-verse describes Betjeman’s childhood and adolescence in a humorous style. Life at Magdalen is portrayed as ‘luncheons, luncheons all the way’ for the eighteen-year-old Betjeman, who admits he was so ‘swept in the social round’ that he ‘cut tutorials with wild excuse’.
This first edition was kindly donated to Magdalen by the nephew of Lionel Perry, Betjeman’s undergraduate friend.
Magdalen College Library, Magd. BETJ-J (SUM) 1960 (res.)
Gift of Patrick Perry (Exhibitioner 1958-1961).
Presentation copy of A Few Late Chrysanthemums (London: John Murray, 1954)
Twenty-six years after Betjeman left Magdalen, he instructed his publisher (the celebrated John Murray, whose ancestor had worked with Jane Austen) to send a first edition of this poetry collection to the College Library, free of charge.
Magdalen College Library, Magd. BETJ-J (FEW) (res.)
Gift of the author, John Betjeman, and the publisher, John Murray.
Signed copy of A Nip in the Air (London: John Murray, 1974)
Betjeman’s warmth and self-deprecating humour come through in this tongue-in-cheek inscription to Lionel Perry: ‘With love from the Literary Author’.
A Nip in the Air was to be Betjeman’s final book. He died ten years after its publication, following a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease. He was holding Archie and Jumbo when he died.
Magdalen College Library, Magd. BETJ-J (NIP) (res.)
Gift of Patrick Perry (Exhibitioner 1958-1961).
Bilingual edition of Betjeman’s best loved poems (Versailles: Éditions Illador, 2011)
At Magdalen College Library, we continue to collect rare editions of Betjeman’s work for our Magdalen Authors section.
Anne Guerber’s French and English bilingual edition of The Best Loved Poems of John Betjeman can only be found in one other library in the UK.
Magd. BETJ-J (BES) 2011
Gift of the publisher, Éditions Illador.