Tolkien’s most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. His creativity, confined to his spare time, found its outlet in fantasy works, stories for children, poetry, illustration and invented languages and alphabets. Known to millions around the world as the author of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien spent most of his life teaching at the University of Oxford where he was a distinguished academic in the fields of Old and Middle English and Old Norse. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: writer, artist, scholar, linguist. As a bonus, the anniversary edition includes an introduction telling the story's history, a transcription of the original, unfinished draft, and 23 pages of notes on allusions and names (Chrysophylax means 'keeper of gold', which is indeed what dragons do). It's illustrated with nearly 50 line drawings by Paula Baynes: Tolkien loved these, but some look sadly faded here, like fourth-generation photocopies. Tolkien crammed much sly wit into his little story, plus jokey philological explanations that Giles's amazing adventures are commemorated in Thames Valley placenames like Worminghall and Thame. He has a legendary anti-dragon sword and a lot of luck, but dragons can be as devious as politicians. One thing leads to another, and despite all his excuses the now famous Giles is called to save his country from the marauding dragon Chrysophylax.

A reluctant hero like the Brave Little Tailor or Bilbo in The Hobbit, Giles wins a great reputation by firing his blunderbuss at a wandering giant-who retreats not in fear but to avoid this tiresome stinging 'insect'. Bluff Farmer Giles lives in a land-of-fable England, full of giants and dragons. This is the 50th anniversary edition of Tolkien's best-loved short fairy story, originally told to his children in the 1920s and expanded for publication in 1949.

Farmer Giles of Ham by J.R.R. Tolkien