John Betjeman — Summoned by Bells

London, John Murray, 1960. First edition. Cloth. A first edition copy of John Betjeman's autobiography in blank verse, with the original dust wrapper. The first edition, first impression of this work in the publisher's original cloth binding, with the original price-clipped dust wrapper. A collection of personal and intimate autobiographical blank verse poems by noted Poet Laureate John Betjeman. These poems relay his life from his early memories of a middle-class home in Edwardian Hampstead, London, to his premature departure from Magdalen College, Oxford. The work was read chapter by chapter in a series of radio broadcasts on BBC radio by the author. In the publisher's original cloth binding, with the original price-clipped dust wrapper. Externally, cloth is in lovely bright condition. Gilt remains bright. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are very bright and clean, except for remnants of tape to the front free end paper. Dust wrapper is generally smart, with light chipping to the head and tail of the spine, and a couple of small marks to the front of the wrap. Fine . Ill.: Michael Tree. Fine/Very Good.