Elegantly and perceptively written, John Betjeman and the Anglican Imagination centres on the most significant influence in the development of Betjeman’s poetic imagination and the element of his life he took most seriously: the Church of England. Readers entering Betjeman’s rollicking and humorous world will gain a clear picture of the turbulent faith behind one of Britain’s most popular poets.

I found this book outstandingly good – tremendously impressive.
Bevis Hillier, author of John Betjeman: The biography

Gardner convincingly asserts that Betjeman’s thinking is constructed with the stuff of Anglicanism in all its diverse nature. It is a moving endorsement.
AnthonyThwaite OBE, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature

A brilliant work by the supreme Betjeman scholar of our times.
Stephen Games

Kevin J. Gardner is Associate Professor of English at Baylor University. A Betjeman scholar, he is the editor of Faith and doubt of John Betjeman: An anthology of his religious verse (Continuum, 2005).

Betjeman and the Anglican Imagination – Chp 1 extract