Betjeman, John

JOHN BETJEMAN was born in 1906 and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford. A prolific journalist, poet and broadcaster, he became a national celebrity, famous for his passionate defence of Britain's Victorian heritage. He was knighted in 1969 and became Poet Laureate in 1972. He died in 1984. GAVIN FULLER is head of the Telegraph library, responsible for maintaining that newspaper's archive. He is also a former Mastermind champion and the editor of Leaves on the Line, a collection of readers' letters to the Telegraph on trains and train journeys. CHRISTOPHER HOWSE writes for the Telegraph, with a weekly column on the human face of religion. He is also a regular contributor to the Spectator and his latest book is The Train in Spain (2013).;