in tolkien's footsteps (I wish...)

As a teenager, I used to wander through nearby fields and woodlands, imagining scenes from Tolkiens' Lord of the Rings. It wasn't until I was in my 30s that I discovered the great man spent his formative years just three miles from where I was brought up.

My first job at 16 in Shirley, Birmingham (not Shirely!) was less than a mile from his childhood home in Sarehole Mill. In my lunch break, I would go for a run and unknowingly pass his house. But best of all was the route through Moseley Bog - and after heavy rainfall I discovered how it earned its name :0) The small wood with its moss-covered trees is believed to be the inspiration for the Old Forest on the Shire's borders. To think I might have run along the same paths as he walked! (And not forgetting Frodo, Sam, Merry & Pippin of course.)

Now, as I write the prequel to my Song of Echoes series, I find inspiration in woodlands and fields where I live in North Bedfordshire. Nearby Bedford is not quite the industrial smoking hellhole that Birmingham was in the 1920s (perhaps inspiration for Mordor?), but it does have a nice walk down by the river :0) 

If you're interested, you can walk in Tolkien's footsteps using Ruth Millington's excellent guide to his life in Birmingham here...

Moseley Bog from Ruth Millington's Tolkien Trail - see link above.