CLARENDON HOUSE PUBLICATIONS

Our classic understanding of British history, as taught in schools, is that the Romans conquered Britain and ruled it for centuries before being forced back to Rome by troubles at home.

If you look closely at maps of Tolkien's Middle-earth, there are plenty of places for the imagination to wander unhindered. The story takes us more or less diagonally across the landscape which Tolkien had devised, from the Shire in the middle West down to Mordor in the South East, with one or two excursions, like Boromir's journey to Rivendell, usually recalled rather than actually shown in the tale, into the regions called Enedwaith and Minhiriath.

Many visitors to Sheffield, particularly Doctor Whofans, can hardly fail to notice the green police box near the city’s Town Hall. 

Peter Jackson's films gave us a visual legacy of a sort. Had it not been for his dedicated persistence, the Tolkien world would have missed out on many things. But the films are not without flaws and the most fundamental of these, from my point of view, is their 'unrealism'.

If you’re in Yorkshire, and serving a roast dinner, then a high quality Yorkshire pudding is the second thing (after pork crackling!) that you’ll be judged on.

At this writing, Spring is taking its slow hold over the Yorkshire countryside. It's difficult not to be tempted to again relate some of the pictures I've taken to scenes in Middle earth, and so below are some more glimpses of Middle-earth/Yorkshire. 

The key to a good Yorkshire roast pork - and the thing that you will be judged on, if you’re determined to serve this to others - is the crackling.

While living in Australia, I used to find guidebooks full of pictures of the English countryside and imagine how they fitted scenes in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth.

Netherne to Saint Pancras

It was Christmas in the latter part of the twentieth century. Snow lay across most of England...