Apparently they are referring to The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. The writer of the article is either badly informed or took a very free hand in interpreting his sources! Illustrations "recently discovered"? Far from it! Why do "experts" say that Tolkien borrowed heavily from his Roverandom pictures when illustrating The Hobbit, when he only adapted a single dragon? Roverandom was written after Tolkien himself (rather than son Michael) lost a toy dog? And then someone asks in the comments, why is the art in Oxford when The Hobbit was written in Leeds - which it wasn't! Save us from this kind of journalism (but buy our book! copies of which are now in the warehouse).

Wayne & Christina

So the 27th October is correct for the release date?

Really looking forward to this book

A much better review

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/ ... hobbit-drawings-published

An Interview with Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull by Michael Martinez

http://middle-earth.xenite.org/2011/1 ... mond-and-christina-scull/

John Rateliff reviews a Tolkien Tapestry

http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/11/ ... val-tolkien-tapestry.html

Well my copy of "The Art of The Hobbit" turned up today (not bad speed to Australia, considering I chose the free supersaver shipping with Amazon), and I have to say that it is a really nice book. Having skimmed through it a couple of times, I'm very much looking forward to reading it properly over the next few days. Thanks to Wayne and Christina for your efforts on this one.

Stu

Yes AotH is a beautiful book.
My only gripe is the fold out pages. The fold out part is almost the same length as the fixed part of the page making them difficult to open and almost as difficult to turn back in properly. If you aren't careful you could easily damage the folded edge. I thought at first that the page edges hadn't been cut.
Still a wonderful book though.

I also got today my slipcased edition of the AotH.
It really is a beautiful book.

Many thanks to Wayne and Christina!

I agree Deagol, the fold-outs are quite delicate. Also, the pages preceding the fold-outs, at the fore-edge, are marginally folded/bent (or are going to become so), as they have nothing to support them; as the fold-outs themselves do not run to the same breadth. That aside (which is only an observation), it's a lovely book; & HarperCollins really kept the price down, at £15.54. I'm carefully perusing it as we speak...

BH

I just read John Rateliff's blog [review] of Tolkien Tapestry --how phenomenally negative. It makes me wonder whether he has a high opinion of any Tolkien-inspired art? If he does not, this critique makes sense --although the point in criticising one particular artist seems rather pointless (if you don't rate any of them.)

BH