Summoned by Bells, the blank verse autobiography by John Betjeman

John Betjeman

Sir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack".He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture...

, describes his life from his early memories of a middle class

Middle class

The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....

 home in Edwardian Hampstead

Hampstead

Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, to his premature departure from Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...

.

The book was first published in November 1960 by Betjeman's London publishers, John Murray

John Murray (publisher)

John Murray is an English publisher, renowned for the authors it has published in its history, including Jane Austen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Byron, Charles Lyell, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Herman Melville, and Charles Darwin...

. A later illustrated edition with line and water colour illustrations by Hugh Casson

Hugh Casson

Sir Hugh Maxwell Casson, KCVO, RA, RDI, was a British architect, interior designer, artist, and influential writer and broadcaster on 20th century design. He is particularly noted for his role as director of architecture at the 1951 Festival of Britain on London's South Bank.Casson's family...

 was published in 1989 by Murray (ISBN 0-7195-4696-6). A paperback

Paperback

Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...

 edition appeared in 2001.

There is also a BBC film version

Summoned by Bells (BBC TV film)

Summoned by Bells is a BBC TV film of John Betjeman's verse autobiography of the same name - " a unique and touching account of an Edwardian middle-class childhood."...

 directed by Jonathan Stedall for television in 1976. An autobiography covering the life of Sir John Betjeman before he started his first job, narrated in blank verse by the man himself, Betjeman visits some of the places that played an important part in his early life.

Synopsis

• Chapter I — Before MCMXIV   Memories of the nursery – realisation of class, you could look up:

But what of us in our small villa row

Who gazed into the Burdett-Coutts estate?

I knew we were a lower lesser world …

and, socially and geographically, down

Glad that I did not live in Gospel Oak

Gospel Oak

Gospel Oak is an inner urban area of north London in the London Borough of Camden below Hampstead Heath. It is bordered by the more affluent areas of Belsize Park to the west, Kentish Town to the south, Eastern Hampstead to the North and Dartmouth Park and Tufnell Park to the east...

.

• Chapter II — The Dawn of Guilt   The author prefers poetry to his father's fascinating world of trade.
• Chapter III — Highgate
  Highgate
  Highgate is an area of North London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath.Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character....
  
    His love for Miss Peggy Purey-Cust and trouble with rivals.
• Chapter IV — Cornwall
  Cornwall
  Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
  
   in Childhood Evocative sounds and smells of childhood holidays in Cornwall.
• Chapter V — Private School To the Dragon School
  Dragon School
  The Dragon School is a British coeducational, preparatory school in the city of Oxford, founded in 1877 as the Oxford Preparatory School, or OPS. It is primarily known as a boarding school, although it also takes day pupils...
  
   in Oxford
  Oxford
  The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
  
  , a new interest in churches.
• Chapter VI — London John's father is doing well, they have moved to Chelsea, "the slummy end"; but he preferred leafy Hampstead.
• Chapter VII — Marlborough
  Marlborough College
  Marlborough College is a British co-educational independent school for day and boarding pupils, located in Marlborough, Wiltshire.Founded in 1843 for the education of the sons of Church of England clergy, the school now accepts both boys and girls of all beliefs. Currently there are just over 800...
  
  After a depressing start, the discovery of literature, nature and the Wiltshire Downs.
• Chapter VIII — Cornwall in Adolescence Adolescent family troubles — an independent exploration of Cornwall.
• Chapter IX — The Opening World Up to Magdalen College, Oxford
  Magdalen College, Oxford
  Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
  
  , influences, failing at divinity.

Places mentioned in the book

• St Ervan
  St Ervan
  St Ervan is a rural civil parish and hamlet in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The hamlet is situated three miles southwest of Padstow. Notable features in St Ervan are the Anglican church, the village hall and the Nonconformist cemetery,...
  
   (In the cool shade of interlacing boughs, I found St Ervan's partly ruined church…)
• Trebetherick
  Trebetherick
  Trebetherick is a village on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated on the east side of the River Camel estuary approximately six miles north of Wadebridge and half-a-mile south of Polzeath....
  
  
• Pembroke College, Oxford
  Pembroke College, Oxford
  Pembroke College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located in Pembroke Square. As of 2009, Pembroke had an estimated financial endowment of £44.9 million.-History:...
  
  

A Ring of Bells

In 1962 Betjeman released an abridged version of the book for children, with illustrations by Edward Ardizzone

Edward Ardizzone

Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone, CBE, RA was an English artist, writer and illustrator, chiefly of children's books.-Early life:...

.