Florence Vilén has published her first novel in Swedish; Tungelblodet (”Blood of the Moon”) is high fantasy, set in a northern archipelago where wind-witches help fishermen to make good catches. Florence cites JRR Tolkien, Ursula Le Guin and Ende as her favourite fantasists (and I concur). The book can be had from Litenupplaga.se (SEK 173) and Adlibris (SEK 177). ... read more
Sir Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films, is again using his fame to promote homosexuality - this time to children in schools. McKellen is a founding member of and long-time campaigner for Stonewall, one of the world’s most successful homosexualist lobby groups. His new task with the group involves tours of British schools to speak to them about “tolerance” of homosexuality. Some, however, see the gay lobby’s campaign to bring the ... read more
Alan Lee will be visiting a few other U.S. cities to promote THE CHILDREN OF HURIN paperback (national release date: October 14) and the brand-new TALES FROM THE PERILOUS REALM, immediately following his FaerieCon appearance. Tuesday, October 14, 6:00 PM Barnes & Noble2289 Broadway @ 82nd St.New York, NY 10024212-362-8835 Wednesday, October 15, 7:30 PM Tattered Cover1628 16th StreetDenver, CO 80202303-436-1070 Thursday, October 16, 6:00 PM Book Passagein the San Francisco Ferry ... read more
On the 21st of September 1937 the first copies of The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, appeared on the shelves of bookstores in England. The maps and illustrations were drawn by the author, one JRR Tolkien, and by Christmas 1937 the book had sold out of its first printing. Tolkien began writing The Hobbit in 1928 after writing down “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit” whilst grading exam papers. The rest is history. The success of The Hobbit led to fans demanding to ... read more
Unseen letters from famous authors such as JRR Tolkien are now on display in East Dunbartonshire. The event at Harper Collins office in Bishopbriggs is part of the Doors Open Days season, which is promoted by the Scottish Civic Trust. The open day includes maps showing the changing face of Glasgow through the decades. There are explanations of how dictionaries are made. The open day features original artwork by Alice B Woodward from the 1907 edition of Peter Pan. Felicity ... read more
Hollywood can be a fickle place, with many film-makers struggling to work out where their next gig is coming from. Jealous eyes, then, will be focusing firmly this morning on the hirsute visage of Guillermo del Toro, who, according to Variety, has just signed a deal to keep him in work until 2017. The Mexican director yesterday announced that he will work on four new films for Universal after he completes his current projects, which include the two planned prequels to The Lord of the Rings, ... read more
Enid Blyton has been named the United Kingdom’s best-loved writer, beating Harry Potter creator JK Rowling into third place and leaving literary giants such as Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens trailing. Blyton, creator of the Famous Five books as well as the Secret Seven, Malory Towers and Noddy, topped a poll of 2,000 adults for the 2008 Costa Book Awards. There was an extremely strong showing for fantasy authors, with Roald Dahl, JRR Tolkien and Stephen King all making the ... read more
There was a touching story in the Santa Barbara Independent today. Lyle Hillegas was the former Westmont College President and El Montecito Presbyterian Church Pastor who sadly passed away this week after a battle with cancer. Tom Schmidt, a fellow religious professional, carried him to his garden - a little corner of England nurtured by his own hand and read to him. Lyle’s choice for his last story was JRR Tolkien’s “Leaf by Niggle,” the tale of a modestly talented ... read more
Pauline Baynes, the artist and illustrator who died on August 1 aged 85, brought the worlds of CS Lewis’s Narnia and JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth to life with her superb line drawings. In 1948 Tolkien was visiting his publishers, George Allen & Unwin, to talk about some disappointing artwork that they had commissioned for Farmer Giles of Ham, when he spotted some witty reinterpretations of medieval marginalia from the Luttrell Psalter that greatly appealed to him. These, it ... read more
Fantasy author Terry Pratchett has been named the ‘evergreen’ king in The Bookseller’s first-ever register of titles that have never fallen out of the top 5,000 chart. Only 12 books, out of the more than 1.8 million titles that Nielsen BookScan are on the ‘evergreen’ chart. Pratchett has three of his early Discworld novels in the selection: The Colour of Magic, Mort and The Light Fantastic. Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong came out top. JRR Tolkien’s The ... read more