Bruce Hopkins has been very busy on his radio show lately, first up Bruce talks with Royd Tolkien, great grandson of JRR Tolkien, autjor of The Hobbit, Lord Of The RIngs, Silmirilian and a vast treasure of other books about films, alcohol and life! Listen Here.

Bruce also talks with Cliff, Quickbeam, Broadway who is a film maker living in the belly of Hollywood. Cliff is one of the drivers of the TORN website and producer of the doco ‘Ringers’. Listen Here.

Lastly, Bruce Hopkins chats with Michael Regina, head of the worlds largest Tolkien fan website, TheOneRing.Net, TORN, about how the current impasse between the producers and acting unions is affecting the fan base of the hugely anticipated Hobbit films. Listen Here.

Got a spare 27 minutes in your day today? If so, take some time to watch this BBC 2 John Izzard interview of Professor J.R.R. Tolkien. Here’s the official synopsis of the March 30th 1968 broadcast:

John Izzard meets with JRR Tolkien at his home, walking with him through the Oxford locations that he loves while hearing the author’s own views about his wildly successful high-fantasy novels. Tolkien shares his love of nature and beer and his admiration for ‘trenchermen’ in this genial and affectionate programme. The brief interviews with Oxford students that are dotted throughout reveal the full range of opinions elicited by ‘The Lord of the Rings’, from wild enthusiasm to mild contempt.

Jump on over to the BBC to view the video. [Video]

From the Birmingham Mail:

The great nephew of legendary Birmingham author JRR Tolkien is sculpting a statue of Cardinal Newman which will be specially placed in Cofton Park for the Papal visit.

Award-winning sculptor and Catholic Tim Tolkien has started work on the life-size statue of the Cardinal which will be fabricated in steel and sprayed with bronze.

Read the full story at the Birmingham Mail website. [Read More]

Poet Michael GR Tolkien’s reworking of classic children’s fantasy is read for audiobook by Charles Dickens’s great-great grandson. It is a match made in publicists’ heaven: the grandson of JRR Tolkien and the great-great grandson of Charles Dickens have collaborated for the first time on a verse retelling of a classic fantasy story.

Poet Michael GR Tolkien, the eldest grandson of the Lord of the Rings author, was inspired by Florence Bone’s prose fantasy for children, The Rose-Coloured Wish, first published in 1923. Telling the story of two children who set out to use an evil enchanter’s wishing chain of stones to save their alpine valley, only to fall into trouble, the book was read to Tolkien in the 40s and 50s as a child, and he in turn read it to his own children. More..

Did you know Professor Tolkien worked on the staff of the Oxford University Press (makers of the OED – Oxfrod English Dictionary) from 1919 to 1920? He worked in the ‘W’ range, discovering the meaning of words from ‘waggle’ to ‘warlock.’ (See a wonderful article on Tolkien’s involvement with the OED here)

We bring this up because millions of ‘non words’ have been discovered in a secret vault owned by the Oxford University Press. A graphic design student, Luke Ngakane, discovered hundreds of these words in his research and used them in one of his design projects. It makes for an interesting article that we thought we’d share with you! Enjoy!  [Read More]

Nicholas Tolkien, the great-grandson of JRR Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings, is directing his first film. JRR Tolkien’s family took legal action against the makers of The Lord of the Rings blockbusters over their £3 billion royalties, but his great-grandson has not been scared off film making. Nicholas Tolkien, 19, who makes his debut with Anacapa, says: “After dealing with the Byzantine workings of Hollywood, I thought, ‘you know what, I can finance this film and direct it, so let’s just do it’.” More..