For 50 years, at a time when others were becoming more internationally aware, John Betjeman immersed himself in the glories of English culture—its locations, its literature, its heroes. Seaside architecture, national poets, the great cathedrals, ancient townscapes—for Betjeman, these all were hard-won achievements with untold pleasures and delights. This delightful collection of poems, private letters, journalism, and musings presents a fully rounded picture of Betjeman’s ideas of what it means to be English. From his arguments for new steel buildings to his amusement about the etiquette of village teashops, these works reveal Betjeman not just as a sentimentalist but as a passionate observer with a wonderful sense of humor and an acute eye.