critics,schmitics

BBC News takes a look at the initial critical reactions to The Fellowship of the Ring, published 50 years ago, and how Tolkien's little books went on to do quite well for themselves despite some unkind notices. There's actually some other fairly interesting stuff in the article about the fact that the line between adult's and children's fiction is increasingly being blurred, by writers like Mark Haddon and the omnipresent if not potent JK Rowling.

"Yet for myself, I could not resist feeling a certain disappointment. Perhaps this was partly due to the style, which is quite unequal to the theme, alternating between the popular novel and the boy's adventure story." - Edwin Muir writing in The Observer