The Well of Life
By Frederick Dixon: I suppose I’m like most men in that shopping is not a favourite chore; as far as possible I try to decide exactly what I want, go in and get it and come out as quickly as possible. But, being a bookworm, I make an exception for bookshops and will browse at length before coming out, very often, with nothing. So the other day I found myself in my local Waterstones and noticed…
Tolkien: Master of Middle Earth
By European: Despite the universal derison of the literary establishment, which could never comprehend its inherently noble spirit, Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings was recently[1] voted the greatest work of fiction of the 20th Century by thousands of Waterstones’ customers. The accolade is well-deserved, for Tolkien’s masterpiece is a classic of heroic romance. Drawing inspiration from traditional European mythology and from his love for the English countryside, Tolkien created an imaginary world and invented…
Our Homeland
By Frederick Dixon: “One of this country’s great unappreciated achievements is that through everything – industrial revolutions, millions of people living here – still today, you can go fifteen minutes outside any British town or city and be in glorious landscape. Britain still has the most reliably beautiful countryside of anywhere in the world. This is an intensely beautiful country that has been extremely well looked after for centuries.” Perhaps it takes someone who isn’t…
The Lord of the Rings – What Peter Jackson Left Out
By Frederick Dixon: “Raise the Shire” said Merry “Now! Wake all our people! They hate all this, you can see: all of them except perhaps one or two rascals and a few fools that want to be important but don’t at all understand what is really going on. But Shire-folk have been so comfortable so long they don’t know what to do. They just want a match though, and they’ll go up in fire. The…