Betjeman A LifeJohn Betjeman was by far the most popular poet of the twentieth century; his collected poems sold more than two million copies. As poet laureate of England, he became a national icon, but behind the public man were doubts and demons. The poet best known for writing hymns of praise to athletic middle class girls on the tennis courts led a tempestuous emotional life. For much of his fifty year marriage to Penelope Chetwode, the daughter of a field