ALAN Bennett’s latest book, based on a Channel 4 series made in 1990, takes six poets whose output covers almost exactly a century, beginning with Thomas Hardy in 1895, encompassing AE Housman, John Betjeman, WH Auden and Louis MacNeice and ending with Philip Larkin, who didn’t quite make the finishing line, having died in 1985. It is a personal selection, accompanied by Bennett’s own comments and analysis and, neatly packaged with a lovely Ravilious engraving on the cover, it is a very tempting object.

The six poets chosen are linked in various ways: Hardy’s familiarity with church services, and his training as an architect, are echoed in Betjeman’s love of country churches, MacNeice’s upbringing as son of a cleric and, indeed, the author’s own interest in church traditions.

Bennett cleverly selects quotations which emphasise these connections, illustrating an aspect of Housman’s life with a line from Auden, for example. In his thoughtful commentary he sheds some light on his own interests and perceived failings, his embarrassment at preferring the “accessible” and, by general assumption, “popular” poets to the more obviously complex verse of others.

In this spirit, he admits to struggling with Auden’s opacity, while regretting the tendency of critics to avoid writers whose meaning is too clear; he is pretty sure that a poem, especially if it is only to be read once, “should be understandable at first hearing”.

The selection is varied, with whole poems and extracts side by side, so that the appetite is whetted nicely. From the biographical details in Bennett’s accompanying text it is clear that most of these poets were, to say the least, difficult people. From Hardy’s social snobbery to Housman’s sarcasm and from Betjeman’s teddy bear fixation to Auden’s intellectual bullying, their company must frequently have been hard to bear, but they all also seem to have shared a certain shyness or insecurity which explains, if not excusing, their ability to offend. Betjeman is described by MacNeice, a fellow pupil at Marlborough, as “a triumphant misfit,” which is maybe a good description of the author’s own self-image, at least in his younger days, when he felt he would never know enough, or have the necessary social accoutrements, to fit in.

What really makes the book, apart from Alan Bennett’s shrewd remarks, is the poetry. Hardy’s Drummer Hodge and Larkin’s MCMXIV more or less bookend this collection, and both will be familiar to anyone who has seen Bennett’s The History Boys.

This is poetry redolent of time and place, from Hardy’s Dorset to MacNeice’s Ulster, from the 1930s suburbs of Betjeman to the 1950s world described by Larkin (whose Church Going is a disappointing omission here), and there is a kind of nostalgic wistfulness surrounding much of the work on show, whether it be Housman’s “blue, remembered hills” or the heavy sense of regret hanging over Hardy’s Midnight on the Great Western (trains also feature heavily here).

The book is also available on two CDs, read by Alan Bennett, and my advice would be to choose this option, then go to the individual poets’ works to supplement the recording. The audio version is worth buying, even if only to hear Bennett reading Betjeman’s In a Bath Teashop; ‘Let us not speak, for the love we bear one another – Let us hold hands and look.’ She, such a very ordinary little woman; He, such a thumping crook; But both, for a moment, little lower than the angels In the teashop’s inglenook.

Replace Bath with Harrogate and we could be in Bennett territory.

l Both the hardback and the audio versions are published by Faber and Faber under the Profile imprint, and each costs £14.99.