“With brandy-certain aim” described my own technique, once upon a time. It’s not nice. but Betjeman’s poems weren’t about nice. They were about real life, a vision of England much more real than many imagine, a summer’s meadow where the picnic usually has wasps.
So because I like you all so much, here, fantastically but true, is nearly a whole hour of Betjeman set not only to music but to film.
Things to note are my mother at 2:30 (not actually her, but it may as well have been) and the literal dance macabre late at the party.
As for the late-flowering lust stuff, obviously, I couldn’t possibly comment.
And btw, the teddy bear in Brideshead was Betjeman’s. He was nothing like Sebastian n any other respect, although perhaps he wished he was.
