I’ve always loved fantasy – books that took me out of my own humdrum existence and transported me to another place, another time, another reality. I read the books when I was fourteen and loved the feeling of being utterly immersed in another world. It’s interesting that although the hobbits aren’t kids (they’re all about seventy years old!) we react to them as children. I think some of you might have already read it.
It prompted me to start inventing worlds of my own, and I’ve never really stopped.'Ĭharlie Higson, April 2012 Guest Editor: 'This really doesn’t need a recommendation from me. At the time, not many people seemed to have heard of it - at least, not at my school - so it was as if Middle Earth was my own private world. I still love it for its landscapes and the music of its words.
Philip Reeve, June 2012 Guest Editor: ' The Lord of the Rings was my favourite book of all as a child - my mum and dad read it to me when I was about nine, and after that I read it to myself several times.
