Tales from the Perilous Realm: Roverandom and Other Classic Faery Stories (01.04.08 by Pieter Collier) - Comments

To say it in David Brawn's words, "the flagship book this year will be The Tales from the Perilous Realm, planned to be the definitive reading edition of Roverandom (10 years since publication), Farmer Giles of Ham, Leaf By Niggle, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and Smith of Wootton Major".

Available for the first time in A-format on 1 september 2008, this is the definitive collection of tolkien's five acclaimed modern classic 'fairie' tales in the vein of 'The Hobbit'.

Roverandom and the four other tales are written with the same skill, quality and hallmarks that made tolkien's Hobbit a classic. In the past they were largely overlooked because of their short lengths, but will now be finally together in a new volume which reaffirms tolkien's place as a master storyteller for readers young and old.

Tales from the Perilous Realm was first released by Harper Collins in January 1997. This hardback edition featured a cover by Roger Garland and included Farmer Giles of Ham, Leaf By Niggle, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and Smith of Wootton Major.

Since then there was a paperback edition in 1998 and the very popular black A-format paperback edition in 2002.

A similar collection, The Tolkien Reader, contains a slightly different (but overlapping) assortment of material.

Now in 2008 this book will include one extra story namely Roverandom. This year the tale celebrates it's tenth year since publication!

The 2008 edition of Tales from the Perilous Realm: Roverandom and Other Classic Faery Stories will be released once again as a hardback edition and will include a dustjacket painting by Alan Lee, together with a number of pencil drawings that illustrate each of the five works in the collection.

I am very pleased to announce that it will now also include a special introduction written by the world-renowned Tolkien scholar and writer, Tom Shippey.

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