Category Archives: John Garth’s writing

Toad to Tode

Posted on 5 April 2023 by John Garth

I’ve posted this on social media already but I’m going to put it here too because, well, I like it. Writing about Tolkien’s unfinished Númenor time-travel novel The Lost Road, I almost inevitably mistype it as “The Lost Toad”. That … Continue reading →

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Making an ass of yourself, with Geoffrey Bache Smith

Posted on 24 March 2023 by John Garth

I’ve just returned from the first-ever conference focusing on Geoffrey Bache Smith, his poetry, and his influence on his great friend, Tolkien. In a previous post, I spotlighted an under-appreciated aspect of Smith: his sense of humour. In this new … Continue reading →

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Oxford and the Olympics

Posted on 25 July 2021 by John Garth

[This was published in Oxford Today, the university’s alumni magazine, ahead of the 2012 London Olympics. The most dated things about it are the reference to a certain Mayor of London by the name of Boris, and Oxford Today itself, … Continue reading →

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How I’ve helped to craft a Dickensian dystopia

Posted on 10 May 2021 by John Garth

An unexpected delight of the past year has been editing Kid: A History of the Future by Sebastian De Souza, better known as an actor in The Great, Normal People, The Borgias and Skins. The job went a long way … Continue reading →

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Interlude with eels and whalebones

Posted on 5 November 2017 by John Garth

A change is as good as a rest, they say. So here’s a poem. I wrote it about 20 years ago, inspired by some personal crisis now half-forgotten, and by an old Chambers Cyclopaedia I’d picked up cheap in a … Continue reading →

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Tolkien at Exeter College: Birth of a legend

Posted on 14 April 2017 by John Garth

In which I blow my own trumpet… When you picture J.R.R. Tolkien, it’s probably as a member of Oxford’s Inklings, writing The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in the 1930s and ’40s, or in old age when fame … Continue reading →

Posted in 100 years of Middle-earth, Book news and reviews, John Garth’s writing, Tolkien in the First World War, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 26 Comments

Teaching Tolkien in Las Vegas

Posted on 7 October 2016 by John Garth

Vegas brought out my worst vices. Handed carte blanche to indulge recklessly and obscenely for twelve months, I borrowed books from the university library in such numbers that when it came to returning them, I had to use a suitcase. I even … Continue reading →

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