Why do we read Tolkien? Why are his works still so popular, given they were written at a very different time, and for people very different from ourselves?
I came across a couple of quotations recently, while planning a quiet morning for teachers in a local Catholic school, and it reminded me of many people’s responses to reading the works of JRR Tolkien. The former Schools Standards Minister, Jacqui Smith, once told Catholic educationalists: “When I think of a Catholic school, I think of a strong ethos.” Her boss, David Blunkett, a former Labour Home and Education Secretary, is famously on record as saying that if he could, he would like to bottle whatever it is that makes church schools so successful. They both knew there was something distinctive, pastoral and authentic about what they saw, but could not quite put their finger on it.
