I was brought up in a house full of books and thought I’d share my list of the top six I was brought up with. Have you read any of these? What did you think of them? 1. J. R. R. Tolkien – The Lord Of The Rings (1950s). Hobbit and his batman carry magic … More My top six classic British novels
I posted the other week on my visit to the Hobbiton Movie Set – and promised a second part. I took, of course, far too many photos. But then, how often can you visit Hobbiton? For real. OK, it’s the movie set, not the real thing. But heeeeey. The set is laid out in a valley … More A visit to the Hobbiton Movie Set – Part 2
It’s early morning and light rain is falling as we depart our motel for a tour we’ve been planning for years but never got around to. Until now. Hobbiton. When The Lord Of The Rings was being made, my wife and I were living under the shadow of the hills that hosted the Minas Tirith and … More Tolkien made real – a visit to the Hobbiton movie set. Part 1.
Viggo Mortensen’s recent suggestion in the British Telegraph that filming on Peter Jackson’s adaptation of Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings was chaotic got me thinking about how a book of that scope can be adapted to the screen, anyway. Some years ago I had a chance to hear Phillipa Boyens, the script-writer, explain how they’d … More So is it muddle earth and not Middle Earth?
It occurred to me the other day that one of my favourite authors – J R R Tolkien – has probably had more written about him than he actually wrote himself. Certainly that’s true if you consider the books Tolkien published in his lifetime. There were, after all, only two Middle Earth books plus a … More Inspiring culture – the meta-literature of Tolkien
Ever had a song stuck in your head – usually, the catchy riff or chorus the composer deliberately engineered for the purpose? They’re called ear-worms. It’s apparently been discovered that the way to kill them – for a third of us anyway – is to listen to Thomas Arne’s eighteenth century ditty God Save The … More Creating your own literary ‘ear worm’ – like Tolkien and Rowling
Matthew Wright 