\'Lord of the Rings\' Fuels Literary Slugfest

January 3, 2002 - 3:25pm — Ryan

The Tolkies are on the march. Mark Lawson, Mr Arts at the BBC, dared to express his dislike of the hobbit books and the new film - and for his trouble has received more abuse from hobbit loyalists than he has ever known before from any quarter.

Lawson has come out fighting. \"Escapist literature has its place, but if a book, and a children\'s book at that, means so much to you that you can hate other people for disliking it, you\'ve walked through the library into some other room: and perhaps a ward,\" he retorted . . .

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