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[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

You can't help but agree with Simon Tolkien's comments: although I think that The Lord of the Rings stands up just as well to the crusty academic standards as other works of the twentieth century, it would, I'm sure, be the huge public response that would have mattered to its author rather than the attitude of the self-appointed literati. After all, judging by his letters, he knew a lot more about English language and literature than most of his critics, for whom he had little regard. That boy's own image was voiced by Edwin Muir in the Observer in 1955, and Tolkien was as scornful of it then as he would be today: "Blast Edwin Muir and his delayed adolescence. He is old enough to know better. It might do him good to know what women think of his 'knowing about women', especially as a test of being mentally adult. If he had an M.A. I should nominate him for the professorship of poetry - a sweet revenge." I wonder how those panelists would feel if they were to read that their opinions had been ridiculed by the author half a century ago. It certainly doesn't say much for their originality. Or perhaps Edwin Muir is now accepted as an academic authority, despite his lack of a higher degree.

I, too, noticed how many of the proponents of the other books complained about the preponderance of fantasy in the top five, but particularly singled out The Lord of the Rings for criticism. Clearly the hope was that Pride and Prejudice, the only set A-level text in the top five, would win (and I agreed with everything that was said about that book, which I would have been happy to see voted number one). I thought that Bill Oddie's attitude was particularly bizarre, bearing in mind that his chosen book was The Wind in the Willows; a novel in which a talking toad becomes a keen motorist and a mole and a water-rat go boating together (also another favourite of mine).

By and large I was happy. I've read three of the top five books, and I've enjoyed all of them. I've heard good things about the other two, but I do think it was a shame that a lot of really great books didn't reach the final rounds. However, as a wise man once said "In the end, there can be only one". People should realise that, as Saucepan says, it was a test of popularity, not of literary merit; so nobody should be surprised if the traditionally accepted classics don't make it. I think that the critics underestimate The Lord of the Rings, but with the winning of this poll a lot more people will discover the book. One day someone may be forced to look at it and ask just why it is that it wins so many popularity polls, and why so many educated and intelligent people are reading and re-reading it despite what the critics say. At the moment the popularity of the films provides ammunition with which to shoot this win down as simple hysteria, but as was mentioned on television, the book won a lot of popularity contests long before the films were released.

Does the result of the poll really change anything, though? The book remains critically unacceptable and popular with the people who really matter to publishers, the reading public. It remains imperfectly understood by its opponents and perhaps too fondly regarded by its devotees. Frankly I was watching The Big Read to see the sneerers get what they knew was coming (and which no doubt only inflamed their spleen). I can see the point: arguing a lost case against a work in which one sees no merit at all can be a soul-destroying task. That's not Tolkien's fault, however. All he did was write the book: he never claimed that it was the best ever, but a lot of people seem to think it was. How sad that the people organising the supposedly democratic poll felt the need to attack and belittle it just because it wasn't what they thought the public ought to be reading. I'm not sure about the multiple and overseas votes: they did skew the demographics, but every book had the same opportunity, and I doubt they let the same person vote twice over the phone. If they did, then more fool them. I would have run it on a one-person, one-vote system, but I wasn't in charge.