Luke writes: I have just been listening to BBC radio 3 and I thought you might like to know that Professor Tolkien’s house in Oxford has just been sold for £700,000. This might not sound like a fortune for a house in central Oxford but apparently (according to the newscaster) there is no kitchen or heating! There was a bit of a bidding war going on but they didn’t mention who bought it.
UPDATE: Jon writes: The actual figure was more than £745,000 for the 7-bedded Georgian townhouse in Oxford, where Tolkien & his wife Edith lived in 1918. The Tolkien Society expressed an interest in buying the property but it proved too expensive. The house was bought by an unnamed man, who now plans to renovate it.