D. J. Taylor

Bookstack with Richard Aldous, the Books and Ideas podcast brought to you by Persuasion.

Coming up on the show today, DJ Taylor, author of the new book, The King Under the Mountain, in search of J.R.R. Tolkien.

David, welcome to Bookstack.

It's very good to be with you, Richard.

Just imagine how badly that would have gone down.

So the book is The King Under the Mountain in Search of J.R.R. Tolkien.

It's written by my guest, DJ Taylor, and published by Pegasus.

But for now, David, congratulations again.

[laughs]

Um, as for Tolkien himself, there is a new biography from UK author critic DJ Taylor coming soon called The King Under the Mountain: In Search of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Its intent appears to be, uh, a placing of him in a, in a wider sociopolitical context, as well as considering his own focus on personal privacy and perhaps burnishing his myth.

That said, the promo copy makes a rather unusual claim at one point, um, [laughs] of no major 20th century literary figure is so little known.