Sunday, October 31, 2010

John Betjeman

In 1934, Betjeman (later, Britain’s poet laureate) and his wife Penelope moved into their new home in the village of Uffington, in Berkshire. Sometimes friends stayed with them, including Cyril Connolly and his wife.

During one of their visits John and Penelope ended up in a violent argument which took them from one end of the house to the other, yelling at each other and passing right through the guest bathroom – much to the surprise of the Connollys who were taking a bath together.

(From The New Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes, 2006, ed. John Gross)