Kevin J. Gardner - Böcker

Widely known for his poetry, radio broadcasts and television documentary films, John Betjeman was also a prolific writer of prose. Through the power of his pen, he publicly expressed his personal Christian beliefs as well as his doubts, made a case for the interconnectedness of religion and the arts, discussed the dependence of English society on its established Church, instructed his readers about the life and history of parishes, and lamented the loss of churches. He is arguably the most important voice of faith and culture in the twentieth century. This collection contains the best of Betjeman's prose of a religious nature. There are miscellaneous essays (from magazines and newspapers), regular columns (mostly from The Spectator and The Telegraph), contributions to others' books and extracts from his own. The volume also features book reviews, sermons, letters, radio broadcasts and some television documentary scripts. The vast majority of these pieces have not been reprinted or anthologized since their original publication, and as a result, Betjeman on Faith will refresh and inform as much as it delights.

Sir John Betjeman was one of the twentieth century's great makers of the Christian imagination. He was maybe the most significant literary figure of our time to declare his Christian faith and his terror of dying. Betjeman used his formidable gifts for poetry to show us how to think about the Anglican faith and about Englishness and Christianity in general. Here is an anthology of about 75 poems on religious themes, with clarifying footnotes and a critical introduction that offers an overview of his life and poetry as well as a commentary on some of his more difficult poems. Here is a new perspective on Betjeman's life and beliefs. This new edition of Betjeman's religious poetry will demonstrate that Betjeman is the great poet of the Church in the twentieth century; it will also introduce delightful, accessible and important poetry to new readers. It will suggest to both British and American readers ways of thinking about spiritual cultural and ecclesiastical matters as well as about the intersection of literature and art.

The book represent a genuine and important discovery in the canon of Betjeman's poems, often considered closed with the publication of the "Complete Poems". Between 1953-57, John Betjeman read a series of poems on "The Faith in the West" program airing on the BBC's West of England Home Service. This series, called "Poems in the Porch", was so popular that Betjeman received constant requests to publish the poems. Although he deprecatingly referred to the poems as mere 'verses', Betjeman at last capitulated to the public. The result was a slim volume of six poems, entitled Poems in the Porch. What few people now realize is that Betjeman read at least 20 original poems on the radio in this series, perhaps even more, although owing to the haphazard records of both the BBC and Betjeman himself it is impossible to reconstruct with complete accuracy the history of this series. Kevin Gardner has been able to identify and collect 26 of these poems and has written a fascinating introductory essay recounting the story of Betjeman as a radio poet and discussing the artistry of these poems. Most have never been published and currently exist only in manuscript.Despite the gap between the BBC records on the one hand and the printed and manuscript texts on the other, Gardner has been able to construct a relatively reliable edition of "Betjeman's Poems in the Porch".

The Interpretation of Owls is a representative selection of one of the UK's most prolific and respected poets. Edited by Kevin Gardner in consultation with John Greening himself, this first American collection showcases highlights of a remarkable forty-year poetic journey, displaying extraordinary variety and technical skill.The contents (arranged thematically to illustrate Greening's abiding interests and influences) comprise more than 250 poems chosen from twenty individual collections published between 1982 and the present. Kevin Gardner has also made a welcome selection of previously uncollected and unpublished work. Readers of John Greening's accessible and musical lines will find themselves transported from America to England to Iceland to Ireland, with a long stay in Egypt and brief stopovers in several other countries.Passing from the present to the ancient world and back, these poems reimagine historical figures, look inward at the poetic self, and explore the very meaning of home. This outward journeying through time and space is reinforced by a constant questing for spiritual meaning—reminiscent of T. S. Eliot, whose influence on Greening has been profound. Though we are unlikely to find him wrestling with angels, Greening is nevertheless constantly hoping for revelation, attuned to the numinous, treating creation as sacred, and ready to find a world of spirituality in history, myth, or even a lump of East Anglian clay.The Interpretation of Owls features an author's preface, an editor's introduction, two indexes, and for readers who want to experience the work in its order of original publication, a chronological table of contents. Additionally, there is an invaluable new interview with the poet in which he discusses with the editor the background to some of the works.

Anthony Thwaite (1930–2021) was one of the most formidable voices in postwar English letters. Deeply esteemed by fellow poets and critics for his original and technically controlled poetry, Thwaite composed in traditional forms, with orderly stanzas, rhyme schemes, and metrical lines that scan. His voice was highly personal, cautiously intimate, and often witty, and he wrote with a gratifying clarity and freedom from abstraction, making him among the most accessible of modern poets. At the Garden's Dark Edge is a collection of a hundred of Thwaite's poems, selected from a span of more than sixty years, exploring his major themes and recurring topics—among them, the consolations of domestic life, the pleasures of language and creativity, and the many humans and other animals in his life. He was inspired by travel and life abroad—most notably Libya, Japan, and the American South—and his poems deeply engage the individuals and cultures he encountered. A lifelong archaeologist, Thwaite also explored the ruins of the past and what we may recover by exploring it. Intriguingly, his work also faces life's most vexing questions from the perspective of a serious Christian faith.This volume contains several poems that have never been reprinted or collected, and one that has never before been published. By making his work more accessible than ever before, At the Garden's Dark Edge aims to introduce Anthony Thwaite to a new generation of readers and preserve his legacy for future generations. A preface by playwright and novelist Michael Frayn accompanies an editor's introduction.