A Few Late Chrysanthemums by John Betjeman

If Betjeman is an archetype of an English poet it is an archetype he himself played a large hand in creating: witty, eccentric, essentially conservative but without so much prudishness that his work is unpleasantly regressive; the word ‘quintessentially’ feels all but invented for him. In the end he is a figure who is hard not to like, and some of his lines and witticisms remain strong presences in the building of the English national character. A Few Late Chrysanthemums is a lovely work, and usefully divided into three sections - Medium, Light and Gloom - to be selected to suit the reader’s mood. This is the true first edition, charmingly published by John Murray in 1954, in an excellent state, pictured here without the dust jacket but this too is included, unclipped.