John Betjeman and Cornwall: The Celebrated Cornish Nationalist

In John Betjeman and Cornwall , Philip Payton provides a lively new account of the life of one of Britain’s most loved poets, offering new insights into his work and his defining lifelong relationship with Cornwall. Quintessentially English, Betjeman was an ‘outsider’ in England - and doubly so in Cornwall where, as he was the first to admit, he was a ‘foreigner’. And yet, as this book describes, Betjeman also strove to acquire a veneer of ‘Cornishness’, cultivating an alternative Celtic identity, and finding inspiration in Cornwall’s Anglo-Catholic tradition. He was also active in Cornish affairs, insisting that Cornwall was not part of England, and championing Cornish environmental concerns that anticipated today’s focus on sustainability.