[Failivrin]

oh i was SO happy when it won! i noticed that practically everyone insulted it and (silly me) i actually cried when sue townsend did. it was just everyone insulting it and all i could think was that Tolkien was cleverer than probably everyone there and he had spent 14 years of his life devoted to this book and she had the gall to sit there and call Tolkien and everyone who had ever enjoyed reading LOTR pretentious.

i was absolutely thrilled when it won because it made most people in that room unhappy. i was astonished and saddened that so many people *cough clive anderson james naughtie michael rosen meera syal sue townsend cough* could sit there and actually say they did not like LOTR. could they not have just said 'i think some of the other books aren't as good' or something?

i am quite like ray mears, i think; i don't understand why anyone wouldn't like LOTR. Also, i loved it when Simon Tolkien looked at the audience while he was reading the quote and saying that there had been a lot of shots.

LOTR winning was effectively a smack in the face for the pretentious literati establishment and i relished every second of it.