Under the shadow of the Ring: my writing beginnings
I grew up in Shakespeare Country, close to Stratford-upon-Avon. There I went to Will S's sister school (for girls), with dreams of writing fortune all around me.
My maternal grandparents lived in Oxford. We visited them as a family, but they lived nextdoor to J.R.R. Tolkien and his wife, so once or twice we popped in there for tea. This was in the early days of the great man's success.J.R.R. Tolkien
I was immediately starstruck. With almost unheard-of precocity and arrogance, I started writing to him and sending him my pathetic writing efforts for critique. (In my defence, I was only 10 at the time.) Today I'm amazed that he replied, in detail, with musings and news on the subject of his own writings; back then, I just felt crushed that he'd pointed out that my poems didn't scan and that I still had, ahem, a few things to learn.
Our correspondence continued from 1965 to 1971 - and despite my wounds I kept the letters, maybe already with one calculating, youthful eye on posterity.
More to follow, lucky readers...
My maternal grandparents lived in Oxford. We visited them as a family, but they lived nextdoor to J.R.R. Tolkien and his wife, so once or twice we popped in there for tea. This was in the early days of the great man's success.J.R.R. Tolkien
I was immediately starstruck. With almost unheard-of precocity and arrogance, I started writing to him and sending him my pathetic writing efforts for critique. (In my defence, I was only 10 at the time.) Today I'm amazed that he replied, in detail, with musings and news on the subject of his own writings; back then, I just felt crushed that he'd pointed out that my poems didn't scan and that I still had, ahem, a few things to learn.
Our correspondence continued from 1965 to 1971 - and despite my wounds I kept the letters, maybe already with one calculating, youthful eye on posterity.
More to follow, lucky readers...
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