*Update – June 2017 I am very pleased to announce that all four sessions on J.R.R. Tolkien I proposed for the International Medieval Congress at Leeds 2017 have been accepted! This will be the third consecutive year of papers on…
Solving a little puzzle in Lloyd Alexander’s Welsh research
A couple of weeks ago I blogged about one of the main authors I have included in my forthcoming monograph (Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children’s Fantasy): Lloyd Alexander. Lloyd Alexander’s fantasy world of Prydain is modelled upon a particular vision…
Henry Neff’s invented world: myth, legend and the boundaries of fantasy
Last week I blogged about Lloyd Alexander, the American fantasist who creatively reshaped elements from Welsh tradition to create an exciting fantasy world and a very successful, award-winning series of books. Alexander’s The Book of Three (1964) is the earliest…
A Beginner’s Guide to Researching Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain
Well, my new book (third book, but second monograph) is due to appear in the new year from Palgrave Macmillan. It is titled Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children’s Fantasy: Idealization, Identity, Ideology and it explores the creative uses of ‘Celtic’ myth (mainly…
Paul McCartney’s “The Fool on the Hill”, Tolkien’s early drawings, and the Rider-Waite Tarot
We were having a lazy morning yesterday, in the sunny, warm conservatory, and Andrew was playing The Beatles 1967-70 on his turntable, when “The Fool on the Hill” started playing. I love this song. I do understand why people tend…
Tackling your first academic conference paper: a practical guide
I was recently asked by an early career colleague for some advice on presenting their first conference paper. Instead of just an informal chat over tea/coffee, which is what I’d usually do, I felt a sudden urge to take some time to…
Leeds 2016: Tolkien Society Seminar and IMC
Well, I am back from Leeds, where I attended two wonderful events: the Tolkien Society Seminar (Sunday 3rd July), this year commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme (which Tolkien survived), packed with talks on the theme of…
Tolkien’s A Secret Vice: first reviews
Since the publication of J.R.R. Tolkien’s A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages (ed. Dimitra Fimi and Andrew Higgins), many readers have been sharing stories about the book, first reviews, as well as pictures of their own copy. Here is a selection!
Researching Tolkien’s ‘Secret Vice’
During the last few months I have been buried in my cave… er… office to finish the OTHER book, and I have gone through a pretty traumatic family emergency (all OK now!). Adding to this mix the mad marking load…
Authorial control and world-building: Some thoughts on J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, Catherine Fisher and Umberto Eco
Catherine Butler’s recent blog post about J.K. Rowling’s control over the Harry Potter world and narratives via social media (stemming from her article in The Conversation) got me thinking again about an issue I explored in my book on Tolkien.…