John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is one of the world’s great storytellers. He lost both his parents by the time he was twelve. A priest of the Birmingham Oratory then took him under his wings in rural settings, as an orphan he was forced to live in crowded cities. From childhood he had been fascinated by languages, mostly for their beautiful sounds. Surrounded by urban squalor, he took refuge in his imagination and began inventing new languages.
