The Betjeman Connection
In John Betjeman’s poem, ‘The Outer Suburbs’ (1932), there is a reference to Oakleigh Park as ‘Oakley Park’: ‘The weary walk from Oakley Park/Through the soft suburban dark’. This is not a spelling that occurs elsewhere, but may be personal idiosyncrasy, rather than a simple mistake, given that Betjeman was, at the time, a schoolmaster in the area. (It could possibly be childhood association. The Betjemans became acquainted with a family called Oakley during holidays in Cornwall. The person universally associated with that name – the American sharp-shooter, Annie Oakley, who died in 1926 – also spelt her name thus.)
Read more about this topic: Oakleigh Park
Famous quotes containing the words betjeman and/or connection:
“Lord, reserve for me a crown,
And do not let my shares go down.”
—Sir John Betjeman (1906–1984)
“We live in a world of things, and our only connection with them is that we know how to manipulate or to consume them.”
—Erich Fromm (1900–1980)