Trains and Buttered Toast

Eccentric, sentimental and homespun, John Betjeman's passions were mostly self-taught. He saw his country being devastated by war and progress and he waged a private war to save it. His only weapons were words - the poetry for which he is best known and, even more influential, the radio talks that first made him a phenomenon.

From fervent pleas for provincial preservation to humoresques on eccentric vicars and his own personal demons, Betjeman's talks combined wit, nostalgia and criticism in a way that touched the soul of his listeners from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Now collected in book form for the first time, his broadcasts represent one of the most compelling archives of twentieth-century broadcasting, reawakening the modern reader to Betjeman's unique perspective and the compelling magic of the golden age of wireless.

“'What a joy'”

A real treat ... A lovely, lovely anthology - Daily Mail, Val Hennessy, Critic's Choice

Games... has produced a volume which no Betjemaniac will be without. - Evening Standard: A.N. Wilson

What a joy - Sunday Herald Magazine

Beautifully produced... Betjeman was evidently a comic writer of the highest class - Guardian

Excellent - Spectator

Informative and entertaining - Scotsman

In Trains and Buttered Toast Betjeman's voice is gloriously new again - The Times

Stephen Games has made a useful, entertaining selection of Betjeman's radio talks - Sunday Telegraph

John Betjeman was born in 1906 and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford. His gave his first radio talk in 1932; future appearances made him into a national celebrity. He was knighted in 1969 and became poet laureate in 1972. He died in 1984.

Stephen Games was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, made documentaries for BBC Radio 3 and was the first arts correspondent on the Independent. He has been a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and deputy editor of the RIBA Journal.

Eccentric, sentimental and homespun, John Betjeman's passions were mostly self-taught. He saw his country being devastated by war and progress and he waged a private war to save it. His only weapons were words - the poetry for which he is best known and, even more influential, the radio talks that first made him a phenomenon. From fervent pleas for provincial preservation to humoresques on eccentric vicars and his own personal demons, Betjeman's talks combined wit, nostalgia and criticism in a way that touched the soul of his listeners from the 1930s to the 1950s. Now collected in book form for the first time, his broadcasts represent one of the most compelling archives of twentieth-century broadcasting, reawakening the modern reader to Betjeman's unique perspective and the compelling magic of the golden age of wireless.

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