I've always enjoyed the poetry of John Betjeman, writing effortlessly as he did about so many things, including his love of good architecture and the countryside, his horror of the vandalism sometimes perpetrated in the name of progress, congestion on the roads, and the misguided vision, as he saw it, of contemporary "plansters". Betjeman's prose, not as well known as his poetry but equally approachable and easy to read, touches on these ad even more of his many concerns and interests. Coming Home, An Anthology of John Betjeman's Prose 1920-1977 (Methuen, £20 in UK) is compiled by his daughter from the output of nearly half a century but, as she points out, it includes articles which could have been written yesterday. Open it at any page, and you are likely to find something to interest you.