The Hobbit Companion by David Day, Illus. Lidia Postma

The Hobbit Companion by David Day. Illus. Lidia Postma. Pub. Pavilion 1997, reprint 2012.

When I was in year 4 at school a teacher read the class The Hobbit. I was completely spellbound and it opened up to me the world of reading that I have never given away.

This book reopens Tolkien’s masterpiece in a way that makes the history of Hobbits, of dwarves, of The Shire and Hobbiton, of Gandalf the Wizard and of the greatest Hobbit of all, the burglar Bilbo Baggins and the saddest Smeagal or Gollum.

Tolkien was a scholar who studied words. A philologist. The word hobbit inspired him like no other and he built around this word a fantasy that has inspired the world.

David Day explains all Tolkien’s word games and Lidia Postma illustrates it all with superb paintings and drawings of Hobbits of Trolls and dragons and rings.

Less than 100 pages this is the most accessible book to Tolkien’s fantasy world that I have read.