Review 2015 No. 10 | The Hobbit or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit", begins John Ronald Reuel Tolkien's The Hobbit, which has been consistently in print, and widely regarded as one of the finest high fantasy and children's books ever written in the English language, since it's publication in 1937. The Hobbit tells the story of the human-like hobbits Bilbo and Frodo, as well as others such as the wizard Gandalf (literally "Dreamer") and Thorin, and is the prequel to the magnum opus of all magnum opus', The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

I could wax lyrical about its many diacritic facets, the fact that it has spawned generations of geeks and a multi-billion pound film trilogy, but I'm convinced that you've heard that all before. In many ways what is key to The Hobbit's success is its self-contained, tight prose and lucid plot. My own Tolkien story began when I was given a copy (and a hobbit house cake!) for my twelfth birthday. It picked up again along the lines of "in a student house in Canterbury there lived a girl (who hadn't read The Hobbit before)". I was enthralled and enamoured in equal measure.

I discovered a treasure (Gollum might refer to it as precious) that was entirely unique, readable, and a crossover novel for all ages. Tolkien was a storyteller, of the kind your mum became when making up stories for you in the back of the car on long journeys, and a true creative. The hobbits lived "between the Dawn of Faerie and the Dominion of Men" and Tolkien lived between the Dawn of the fairy tale and the modern world. This allowed him to create more than books. He created an entirely complete, entirely perfect world. With the diminishment of the academic, literary and social world in which he created The Hobbit, I believe it is a feat that will never be repeated again. He was a one off. It is a one off. Read it!

Review 2015 No. 7 | The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, illustrated by Christian Birmingham; C.S. Lewis (1950); Collins 

"I can always get back if anything goes wrong," thought Lucy. She began to walk forward, crunch-crunch over the snow and through the wood toward the other light. In about ten minutes she reached it and found it was a lamp-post. As she stood looking at it, wondering why there was a lamp-post in the middle of a wood and wondering what to do next, she heard a pitter patter of feet coming toward her.

Lucy Looks into a Wardrobe; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; page 9

With these immortal words, Clive Staples Lewis (or C.S. Lewis as he's usually known) conjured up one of the most captivating and unique children's fantasy world's ever created. The Irish Oxford University don created the Narnia world, seen throughout the Chronicles of Narnia's seven high fantasy novels. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was published first in 1950 by Geoffrey Bles and masterfully illustrated by Pauline Baynes, whose illustrations are still used in many editions to this day.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, illustrated by Pauline Baynes; Pocket Edition; HarperCollins

Although published first, the story actually comes second chronologically in the series, preceded by The Magician's Nephew, published in 1955. The series sprouted from post-war England and reflects Lewis' conversion to Christianity following the early death of his wife. The Lion is the Jupiter of Michael Wood's The Narnia Code. Wood claims that each of the seven stories represent a planet and that the second is the snowy, icy winter tale representing a pre-Christian world before Jesus Christ's sacrifice, his place taken here by Aslan the lion. Best-selling British writer Philip Pullman has cast Lewis as a Christian propagandist is the guise of a children's author, famously opposing Narnia's religious undertones in his fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials.

The second in the series is set in 1940 and tells the story of how the Pevensie's - Lucy, Susan, Peter and Edmund - originally discovered Narnia in a wardrobe of the old house that they were evacuated to. Along the way we meet Professor Digory Kirke (who we first see as a child in The Magician's Nephew), as well as the White Witch Jardis, Aslan the Lion, and forests of talking animals. 

As a child I was captivated by the idea of finding another world in a wardrobe. It's similar to the Alice Through the Looking-Glass fantasy of a parallel universe lurking behind the mirrors in your house. I think that is why this book instantly became my favourite ever children's story, and why I spent my childhood looking in the backs of wardrobes and watching the 1988 BBC adaptation again and again. It is a crossover novel and is utterly charming. Whatever your beliefs, this is a winter tale like no other.

Watch an interview with the actors who played the Pevensie children in the BBC series adaptation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4PseLl0oZ4

Review 2015 No. 4 | The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

I started this in October last year. Sitting on the bus I whizzed through about half of it in an hour or two (it was a longgg bus journey). It's hard to know where to start with this one, or how to critique it. Rudyard Kipling had it published in 1894 and his father John Lockwood Kipling provided the original illustrations, but most people will have experienced The Jungle Book, or The Jungle Books if you are discussing the sequel, via the 1967 Disney film classic. Despite this 121 year time lag, the 14 anthropomorphic jungle tales, inspired by Kipling's time in colonial India, are as fresh and witty as when he first put pen to paper.

Kipling writing is at times archaic, but always evocative and magical. The book has your favourite Disney characters - Mowgli the Man-Cub, Baloo the bear, Shere Khan the tiger, Bagheera the panther, Tabaqui - alongside others; Kaa, Rikki-Tikki, Toomai the elephant, and a Sea Cow. I will definitely be re-reading this (at some point), and I think that says a lot.

To purchase the beautiful Penguin Clothbound Classic above, follow the link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jungle-Books-Clothbound-Classics/dp/0141394625/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1423037765&sr=1-5&keywords