JOHN BETJEMAN: THE BIOGRAPHY by Bevis Hillier

But it seems eminently sensible to release a distillation of the work in the run-up to the centenary of the poet's birth in August.

This trade paperback is a substantial volume, but it is user-friendly nevertheless, and will be welcomed as a crucial reference work by students and aficionados alike.

Bevis Hillier first met John Betjeman in 1971 and a great friendship developed until the poet's death in 1984.

Mr Hillier devoted more than 25 years to writing Betjeman's life, a task entrusted to him by the poet himself.

The biography takes the reader from Betjeman's troubled childhood in north London, through his blossoming in Oxford and clandestine marriage, to the glory days of his later years when his Collected Poems (John Murray, £12.99) became a runaway bestseller.

In Trains and Buttered Toast, edited by Stephen Games (John Murray, £14.99), Betjeman reveals what a polymath he was. This collection of his radio broadcasts will remind the reader of the compelling magic of the golden age of the wireless.

Urban campaigns sit alongside wartime reflections, and Betjeman's affection for churches is clear, along with his views on assorted eccentrics, not to mention holiday escapes and reminiscences on the seaside.

From the 1930s to the 1950s, as the world changed in numerous ways, the broadcasts provided a backdrop to the poet's own metamorphosis and show how he saw the world.

Read these books in preparation for a visit to Oxford University's Bodleian Library, where staff are staging an exhibition about Betjeman's time in Oxford. It runs until October.

JOHN BETJEMAN: THE BIOGRAPHY by Bevis Hillier (John Murray, £18.99)