I have just found out that my book, Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits, is a finalist for the 2010 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies! The Mythopoeic Society has been giving awards for fantasy literature and…
Tolkien and Fantasy Online Courses at UWIC
Thanks to everyone for your interest in the new online courses I will be teaching at UWIC from October 2010! I have now received a lot of e-mails and I am doing my best to reply to all of them!…
Festival in the Shire Journal – Issue 3
Issue 3 of the online magazine Festival in the Shire Journal has just appeared. The journal includes a range of interesting articles and interviews in an appealing, web-wise layout. I was honoured to be interviewed by Colin Duriez (himself a…
(Long Overdue) Update!
The last few months have been very busy, including traditional and online teaching (both undergraduate and postgraduate), a public lecture, work on future publications, and some media work. Here is a list of some of the things I have been…
Festival in the Shire gains Welsh Media attention!
The Welsh media have shown great interest in Festival in the Shire! Yesterday’s Western Mail included the article “Tolkien festival to be held in Middle Wales” in which I was quoted, together with the Mark Faith, the man behind the…
Festival in the Shire!
A new exciting Tolkien event has just been announced! Festival in the Shire is a conference, exhibition and fair celebrating themes inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien, which will be held in mid-Wales, in Machynlleth’s historic Y Plas house and grounds between…
Tolkien, Race and Cultural History shortlisted for the Katharine Briggs Award 2009
I was delighted to find out that my book Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits has been shortlisted for the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award for 2009. The Katharine Briggs Folklore Award is an annual book prize established…
Clash of the Gods – Thanks!
Thanks to all of you who sent e-mails with kind words about “Clash of the Gods”: I am pleased you found it informative and engaging. I have still only seen bits and pieces of the three episodes I was in…
Clash of the Gods
A new series on world mythologies has been airing in the USA History Channel since late August 2009. The series started with Classical Greek Myths (Zeus, Medusa, Hercules, and others) and the next few episodes are now going to focus…
Talk on Tolkien and Wales at Pentyrch
On Friday 25 September at 7:30pm at Pentyrch Village Hall at Pentyrch, Cardiff, I will give a talk on “Tolkien’s Welsh Inspirations, Language and Places” for the Pentyrch and District Local History Society. Everyone wellcome! See here for the Pentyrch…