John Betjeman had many connections with Oxfordshre, writes Maggie Hartford.

He spent three years at Oxford, but ended up without a degree, then spent a few terms as a prep school teacher before landing his first job in journalism, on The Architectural Review.

Then in 1933, five years after being 'rusticated' from Oxford, he married Penelope Chetwode and moved to a rented farmhouse, Garrard's Farm in Uffington.

Peter Gammond writes in The Little Book of Betjeman (Guidon, £9.99): "Nearby in Faringdon lived the eccentric Lord Berners, who became a close friend and nobly entertained Penelope's white Arab horse for tea in his drawing room."

From 1945, Betjeman lived at The Old Rectory in the tiny village of Farnborough, until he moved in 1951 to nearby Wantage, where there is a park named after him. Betjeman's daughter, Candida Lycett Green, described her Farnborough childhood in her memoir The Dangerous Edge of Things (Black Swan, £8.99).

With interesting photographs and a foreword by Lady Wilson, a keen Betjeman fan, the Little Book gives a good overview of the life of a poet who is long overdue for a return to popularity.