The Hobbit. The prelude to The Lord of the Rings

This is the story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected…

Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely travelling further than the pantry of his hobbit-hole in Bag End. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard, Gandalf, and a company of thirteen dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day, to whisk him away on a journey ‘there and back again’. They have a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon…

The prelude to THE LORD OF THE RINGS, THE HOBBIT has sold many millions of copies since its publication in 1937, establishing itself as one of the most beloved and influential books of the twentieth century.

‘The greatest children’s book ever written… Funny, frightening, dense with detail and gloriously vivid, it is the one adventure story every eight-year-old should have.’
Amanda Craig, The Times

‘The English-speaking world is divided into those who have read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and those who are going to read them.’
Sunday Times

‘A finely written saga of dwarves and elves, fearsome goblins and trolls… an exciting epic of travel and magical adventure, all working up to a devastating climax.’
Observer

‘A flawless masterpiece’ The Times

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on the 3rd January, 1892 at Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State, but at the age of four he and his brother were taken back to England by their mother. After his father’s death the family moved to Sarehole, on the south-eastern edge of Birmingham. Tolkien spent a happy childhood in the countryside and his sensibility to the rural landscape can clearly be seen in his writing and his pictures.