I was recently asked by lotrplaza.com to contribute an article to their new Scholars Forum on a Tolkien-related topic. My recently published book Tolkien, and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits includes an important part on Tolkien’s knowledge of folklore…
Which Lewis in Oxford?
Lewis Carroll, C.S. Lewis or Robbie Lewis? An Oxford-academic-cum-fantasy-writer, whose “muse” is called Alice; an elderly don (specialist on Lewis Carroll) with secret vices; a girl who literally goes “through the looking glass” (killed by a Persian mirror); and a…
Tolkien at Kalamazoo
The International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo at Western Michigan University, is one of the oldest and most prestigious conferences on Medieval Studies in the world. The conference is now in its forty-fourth year, and for the past nine…
Book Launch
On Friday 28 November at 6pm the official launch of my book, Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits, took place at the Centre for Lifelong Learning, Cardiff University. Dr Juliette Wood introduced me and I then had…
Radion Interview with Roy Noble at BBC Radio Wales
Earlier today I was interviewed on the Roy Noble show at BBC Radio Wales and answered questions about my new book, including the links of Tolkien’s work with Wales and the Welsh language. To listen to this short interview click…
Tolkien, Race and Cultural History published
My book Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits has just been published by Palgrave Macmillan. My book aspires to be a major new contribution to Tolkien studies, as it aims to contextualise Tolkien’s work, bring to light…
Book Cover of Tolkien, Race and Cultural History is now online
The dust jacket for my forthcoming book Tolkien, Race and Cultural History is now online on the Palgrave Macmillan website. The photo figuring on the book cover is of my own design, which I created by manipulating a photograph I…
The Ring Goes Ever On: Proceedings of the Tolkien 2005 Conference
The proceedings of Tolkien 2005: The Ring Goes Ever On, a conference organized by the Tolkien Society to celebrate 50 years of The Lord of the Rings which took place at Aston University, Birmingham, on 11-15 August 2005, will be…
Fifth volume of the journal Tolkien Studies
The fifth volume of the journal Tolkien Studies has just been published. As always it contains a great selection of scholarly articles, shorter notes and book reviews on many different aspects of Tolkien’s creativity. The leading article is a masteful…
Tolkien on Fairy-Stories
A new expanded edition of Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy-Stories” has just been published, edited by Douglas Anderson and Verlyn Flieger. The book includes previously unpublished versions of the essay, rejected passages, as well as a critical study of the history…