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There and Back Again: In the Footsteps of J.R.R. Tolkien
 
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There and Back Again: In the Footsteps of J.R.R. Tolkien (Paperback)

by Mathew Lyons (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 210 pages
  • Publisher: Cadogan Guides (23 Mar 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1860111394
  • ISBN-13: 978-1860111396
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 1.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 572,993 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Daily Telegraph, 24 April 2004
'[A] wry, thoughtful book...droll enough to avoid those besetting sins of Tolkien enthusiasts, humourlessness and pomposity...[he] gets this reviewer's nod'

Anthony Sattin, Sunday Times, April 2004
'He is as diligent in recounting key moments in the author's progression as he is in explaining early English history'

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A must for fans of Lord of the Rings, 7 Jun 2004
This is quite an unusual book - a mix of biography, travel writing, history with a bit of self-mocking thrown in - but on the whole it works really well.

Over the course of a year, Lyons set out to explore Tolkien's inspiration in the English countryside the only way possible - on foot. What you get is a series of chapters on one or more places in England. Lyons writes beautifully about the landscape and demonstrates in each place he visits the relationship between the landscape and its history and myths and Tolkien's work.

Don't read this expecting to be told where you can find a hidden Yorkshire valley just like Rivendell or something (although there are a couple of surprise discoveries that really impressed me!). It's more subtle and thought-provoking than that. However, if you're anything like me, you will go back and read Lord of the Rings again and see things you never noticed before.

Lyons is an engaging companion. He starts out looking back on his own adolescent obsession with Tolkien in the 1970s - something I can really relate to - and sending up his pretentious teenage self. It really helps that Lyons doesn't take himself too seriously and also that his approach to Tolkien isn't one of awe and reverence. It's all quite personal in the best sense and you finish the book really feeling like you've got to know Tolkien and his motivation quite a lot better.

There and Back Again made me want to do two things: re-read Lord of the Rings and then go and visit for myself the places Lyons has been.

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The book i should have written!, 12 Nov 2008
This is the book I feel I should have written. Mathew's obsession with Tolkein was shared by myself - a school friend of his, but it was I that went on to study in Oxford, drink at Tolkien's watering holes, and lived close to where he retired to. I knew all about Tolkien from the reviews at the Oxford Times where I worked for 5 years. So Mathew has caught the essence of the man and places which inspired him to a T! Take the book with you when you visit these places and you'll see middle earth beginning to form infront of you.
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