The Latest Breaking News from John Betjeman

Barry Humphries obituary: cerebral satirist who created Dame Edna Everage

During an appearance on Desert Island Discs in 2009, Barry Humphries declared that he would be happy if his obituaries made no mention of Dame Edna Everage, the monstrous Melbourne housewife he had created half-a-century earlier. Some hope, said The Times. True, Dame Edna wasn’t his only alter ego: there was also…

The Week · Apr 28, 2023

Your Friday night playlist curated by south London band HMLTD

As they release their dystopian second album The Worm, Isobel Van Dyke discovers lead singer Henry Spychalski’s go-to tracks for a Friday night spent alone with his inner demons

Evening Standard · Apr 7, 2023

A vanished rural North East railway station - and its rebirth in a new location

Like so many rural railway stations, the early decades of the 20th century saw a fall in passenger numbers at Rowley, County Durham. After 1939 the station was only open to goods trains, and closed completely in 1966

Chronicle Live · Mar 28, 2023

Jonathan Stedall obituary

Documentary-maker who covered politics, historical figures and great railway journeys in his nearly three decades at the BBC

The Guardian - UK · Oct 27, 2022

Silence of the poets – has an ancient tradition of commemorative verse died with the Queen?

Not so long ago, the death of a monarch would have been a cue for outpourings of elegies and poetic commemorations. One might have thought the end of the second Elizabethan era would prompt something similar – but apparently not.

The Conversation · Sep 19, 2022

Have a look at this stunning island up for sale in Shetland

AN entire Scottish island could be snapped after going up for sale in Shetland.

The National (Scotland) · Sep 13, 2022

Five men and one woman who took on impossible job – of poet laureate

Several of the poets appointed by, or inherited by the Queen, had to deal with public mockery. No wonder Philip Larkin turned down the role

The Guardian - UK · Sep 10, 2022

Philip Larkin at 100: Why the morbid curmudgeon still belongs in schools

A century after the poet’s birth, Larkin’s friend and biographer Andrew Motion talks to Kevin E G Perry about his controversial prejudices, his keen sense of mortality and why he continues to deserve a place on the national curriculum

The Independent UK · Aug 7, 2022

Edge of England by Derek Turner review – a love letter to Lincolnshire

The poet and novelist pays homage to the England’s lost country and a vanishing way of life

The Guardian - UK · Jul 23, 2022

Special pubs given protection status to ensure they won't be turned into flats

Whitelock's Ale House - described by Sir John Betjeman as ‘the very heart of Leeds’ - is one of 11 famous watering holes getting Grade II* heritage status on the advice of Historic England

Daily Mirror · Jun 15, 2022