The Lord of the Rings was voted the greatest book of the twentieth century in a huge poll in the UK run by Waterstones bookstore and the BBC. I think that alone shows that it appeals right across the readership spectrum. I am not a fantasy fan per se but I'd be lost without my Tolkien. Yes, he is escapism but as others have already pointed out it is the craftsmanship that just makes his work so utterly wonderful. I have studied Saxon history and early British myths and legends for years and can see common threads but it truly is a world of it's own, so beautiful and plausible. You can see it as soon as you read it. I recently met a woman of 84 who had just read it for the first time and was really upset she had not come across the book earlier in her life. She said that when reading it she wasn't in an old people's home anymore, she was walking across Middle Earth and free. I know in my own writing I will never come near Tolkien's skill with the English language but his books are so great they still inspire me to get out the thesaurus and do the best I can with my brain instead of thinking I'll never match that, I might as well give up. Tolkien appeals because he is so good on so many levels, story, 'historical' background, language, imagination, thought process. Everything.
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Auriel
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