Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien lived through turbulent times. Born in 1894 inBloemfontein, he was orphaned at the age of ten, and later fought bravelythrough the horrors of the First World War. In the 1920s he became the proudowner of a market garden at Blackminster in Worcestershire, before meetingand marrying his wife Magdalen in nearby Evesham. He continued to live atBlackminster with his growing family throughout the difficult times thatfollowed, in the 1930s and during the Second World War.

Hilary was visited regularly in Blackminster by his brother Ronald and theycorresponded throughout their long lives. While much of this correspondencehas been lost with the passage of years, some still remains, and it is hopedthat a selection will be published in the future. Hilary died in 1976, justthree years after his brother Ronald.

In a box in an attic there lived a notebook. In that faded little notebookare the memories of the child who was Hilary Tolkien. That notebook has beenfound, and Hilary's grandson Chris Tolkien has consented to it beingpublished in an illustrated form.