J.R.R. Tolkein

There must be something quite beguiling about the dreaming spires of Oxford in Oxfordshire that inspired writers like J.R.R. Tolkien to produce some of his best work.

Or perhaps it was Oxford’s honey-coloured buildings and centuries of traditions that fuelled their fantasies and colourful characters.

Much of the life of J.R.R. Tolkien was spent in Oxford, and it was at his home in Northmoor Road that he wrote many of his books; he was best known for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. 

For a while, a young J.R.R. Tolkien worked for the Oxford English Dictionary based in the Old Ashmolean Building. Today the building is the Museum of the History of Science. Tolkein lived in Oxford until his death in 1973 and is buried in Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford.

Tolkein and C.S. Lewis were firm friends, and big chapters of their lives were played out in the colleges of Oxford where they taught. They liked to meet for a drink in the Eagle and Child pub in Oxford, where they pioneered a club, the Inklings, reading aloud from current works during their regular meetings. 

The pub is still there so why not call in and take a look at memorabilia displayed in the Rabbit Room, which they regularly frequented, and raise a glass to them both?

Hunting out Tolkien? Then don't forget to make a stop in Bournemouth, he was a regular visitor to the Hotel Miramar from the 1950's right through to1972, a blue plaque can be spotted at the entrance to the hotel.