Considering how popular John Betjeman is in this country it is surprising that he is virtually unknown in America. We hold the late poet laureate in a nostalgic fondness whether it is his call for bombs to rain on Slough, his “late flowering lust” or his iconic poem that finishes with those wonderful words about a child born in Palestine being made afresh today “in bread and wine”. The reason for this British nostalgia and the failure by our American cousins to ‘get’ Betjeman is probably down to the poet’s seeming reliance on the Church of England for his inspiration. It is this use of the Anglican Church that Kevin Gardner explores in one of the best books on Betjeman for a long time, a book made even more extraordinary in that it was written by an American. In Betjeman and the Anglican Imagination Gardner not only looks at how everything from the ringing of church bells to the practice of fasting in Lent to a Calvinistic Evensong acted as inspiration for Betjeman’s poetic musings but also at the ongoing struggles and doubts that he wrestled with. Unlike many people today Betjeman was proud to be a Christian and an Anglican, but he was not one who glibly followed the Christian faith without wrestling with the miracles and seeming contradictions of Scripture. It is this contradiction that makes up the reason for this book which is one to be recommended not only for those who like Betjeman but also those who want to know more about either this man, his poems or the ability to reconcile the fact that we do not have all the answers and often just have to trust God.