Recently Published Tolkien-Related Books

We’ve received notification of two new books that may be of interest to the CoE community.

The first is The Hobbits: The Many Lives of Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin by Lynette Porter. From the press release: The beloved characters of Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin have been much-adapted for radio, television, film and stage. Lynette Porter follows the hobbits through these many other lives, from Tolkien’s on-page revisions and John Boorman’s unmade screenplays, through to Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and its musical counterpart. She also reviews over 50 years of ‘Hobbit Art’, including the work of Alan Lee, John Howe and Ted Nasmith.

The second is There and Back Again: J R R Tolkien and the Origins of The Hobbit By Mark Atherton. From the Press Release: Mark Atherton here explores the chief influences on Tolkien’s work: his boyhood in the West Midlands; the landscapes and seascapes which shaped his mythologies; his experiences in World War I; his interest in Scandinavian myth; his friendships, especially with the other Oxford-based Inklings; and the relevance of his themes, especially ecological themes, to the present-day.

To read more about the books, and to purchase if you are interested, please visit the publisher’s website at www.ibtauris.com.