John Betjeman quotes

" I have a Vision of the Future, chum. The workers flats in fields of soya beans tower up like silver pencils, score on score. " # The future # Freedom # Power

" Keep our Empire undismembered guide our Forces by Thy Hand, gallant blacks from far Jamaica, Honduras and Togoland; protect them Lord in all their fights, and even more, protect the whites. " # Empire # Love # Race and Racism

" People's backyards are much more interesting than their front gardens, and houses that back on to railways are public benefactors. " # Home # Politicians and Politics # Death and Dying

" Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough! It isn't fit for humans now, There isn't grass to graze a cow. Swarm over, Death! " # Authority

" He sipped at a weak hock and seltzer As he gazed at the London skies Through the Nottingham lace of the curtains Or was it his bees-winged eyes? " # Time and Time Management

" Gracious Lord, oh bomb the Germans. Spare their women for Thy Sake, And if that is not too easy, We will pardon Thy Mistake. But, gracious Lord, whate'er shall be, Don't let anyone bomb me. " # Mistakes

" He would have liked to say goodbye, Shake hands with many friends. In Highgate now his finger-bones Stick through his finger-ends. You, God, who treat him thus and thus, Say, "Save his soul and pray." You ask me to believe You and I only see decay. " # Friends and Friendship

" Miss J. Hunter Dunn, Miss J. Hunter Dunn, Furnish'd and burnish'd by Aldershot sun, What strenuous singles we played after tea, We in the tournament — you against me! " # Tennis

" We sat in the car park till twenty to one And now I'm engaged to Miss Joan Hunter Dunn. " # Chastity

" Stony seaboard, far and foreign, Stony hills poured over space, Stony outcrop of the Burren, Stones in every fertile place " # Churches