Recently we were contacted by a Michael White, a writer who’s preparing a new biography of Tolkien. In his words, “I’m just writing to let you know that I’ve been approached to write a biography of Tolkien for global publication in late November this year. I’m working flat out on the book for delivery in mid-Sept. The book will be published by Alpha in the US and my regular publishers in a collection of territories around the world.
“I know some of you will be aware of the very good biography by Humphrey Carpenter, but I hope mine will be a little lighter and right up to date. I am of course a huge fan of Tolkien and have been for a quarter of a century and I intend my book to be a respectful and entertaining tale. Watch this space!”
His name might ring a bell for some of you. He is the author of twenty books: These include the international best-seller, Stephen Hawking – A Life In Science which has been translated into 15 languages; Einstein – A Life in Science and Darwin — A Life In Science (with John Gribbin). Early solo efforts included a collection of biographies for teenagers – Newton, Galileo, Lennon and Mozart and a biography of Isaac Asimov – Asimov – The Unauthorised Life (1994). Since then he has written the internationally best-selling: The Science of the X-Files (1996), an alternative biography of Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer which concentrates upon Newton’s obsession
with magic and alchemy. This was nominated by four British newspapers as ‘biography of the year’ in 1997 and was awarded ‘Book of the Year’ in the science category by Bookman Associates in the U.S, an honour he shared with Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees. He followed this with Life Out There – a detailed look at the question of extraterrestrial life and Super Science, a continuation of the theme begun with The Science of the X-Files.