- Radio Times
- Review by:
- Laurence Joyce
It’s kind of reassuring to learn that the romance at the heart of The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien is based on events in his own life — that some part of Middle Earth and its faerie inhabitants had their inspiration in suburban Birmingham. Novelist Helen Cross tells how the teenaged Tolkien fell in love with Edith Bratt when they were both orphans living in an Edgbaston boarding house.
As in all good love stories, the couple eventually overcome the obstacles that life sets in their way and the tale ends in an Oxford churchyard, where the couple now lie under a gravestone bearing the Elvish names of Beren and Luthien.
About this programme
Novelist Helen Cross explores JRR Tolkien's relationship with Edith Bratt, which began while they were orphans living at a boarding house in Edgbaston, Birmingham. She reveals how they were forbidden from seeing each other until they turned 21, during which time Tolkien went to study at Oxford. Years later, he got in touch with his estranged lover, who was by then engaged, and persuaded her to marry him instead - but their future was put in doubt with the outbreak of the First World War.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Presenter
- Helen Cross
- David Warner
- Ed Sear
Crew
- Producer
- Sara Conkey
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