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Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar
I finally got the Tolkien Guide and Companion in the mail! I'd ordered it months ago, and though English books take longer to arrive here, I suspect that the delay might have involved somebody's forgetfulness as well. A reminder elicited immediate delivery. Now, for the time to start reading...  |
I think Lal & I were among the first to get hold of a copy - according to a friend (one of the contributors as Lal mentioned) we got ours before the authors got theirs - hes a close friend of theirs & emailed them that we'd got our copy - which apparently came as a bit of a surprise to them! Its an amazing book full of interesting stuff - I discovered that a book I'd picked up in a second hand bookshop just before ('Oxford Renowned') was by a friend of Tolkien's - Leonard Rice-Oxley. Actually that one is quite interesting in itself, & very rare (been out of print since the thirties). Lots of background on Oxford & with some nice colour plates of Oxford in the 20's & 30's, showing the Oxford Tolkien would have been familiar with. It also contains some interesting stuff about Oxford in WWI - an airfield right on the edge of the city, & military training grounds in the parks, with cadets billeted in the colleges.
My favourite quote from the Rice-Oxley book is from a description of one of the buildings at Magdalen College:
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"Its original, this toy structure, this miniature oddity at which I hope many will on going out of the college take a last, longest, & fondest look, ought to be reserved for an endowed Fellow who should live placidly in it writing nothing but romances & fairy tales"
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