Further finds from past moonbase squirreling include this box set of The Hobbit cassette tapes. Its a BBC audio book from back in the day, when cassettes were king.
It's its stablemate, the BBC radio-play of The Lord of the Rings from 1980 that I remember the most. It was a highlight of a winter evening in the volunteers' cabin down the Ouse Washes bird reserve, when I was a volunteer warden. There was no TV so the radio was important to me and my fellow wardens after a hard day's graft in the wet fen.
The BBC released the radio play as a 13 audio cassette box set, which had this really startling cover. I never got this but I did hear it on the wireless after all.
I can imagine Tolkein stuff being very collectable. Do you collect JRR?
Got both these sets, the LOTR one being very good indeed. I'll have to see about upgrading to CD, 'cos I know it was issued in that format too. Got a few different editions of the books (The Hobbit and LOTR), but I think The Hobbit is a better read out of the two of them.
ReplyDeleteThey are great sets Kid. The LOTR tapes are quite pricey now. I picked up the Hobbit tapes at a car boot. I used to collect old sci-fi, fantasy and horror cassettes but there weren't enough around at car boots so I switched to old paperbacks and have tons! Somewhere I do have a very early computer game of the Hobbit. Its a cassette and there's neat art inside. As for the books I prefer LOTR - the black riders being my fave characters - but the Hobbit's fine too. I got the Silmarillion as a teenager but have only dipped in. I got a hardback copy of Tom Bombadil in the 70's too. No, you never get bored of the rings! [Have you seen that book? BOTR]
DeleteI bought a copy of The Silmarillion around 35-plus years ago and was disappointed to find that it read like a collection of footnotes, so abandoned it a few pages in. Don't think I've seen Tom Bombadil - unless it was included in my copy of The Silmarillion.
DeleteThe Silmarillion is a stodgey tome compared to the ease of LOTR and the Hobbit. Just remembered, I have Farmer Giles of Ham as well somewhere. In the 70's I adored art connected to LOTR. I had a posters of Tolkein's map and an Athena woodblock of Gandalf together with art books inspired by LOTR like the Brothers Hildebrant. Great times.
Deletelotr is one of my favorite books,i love Tolkien's universe EW :)
ReplyDeleteWhats it called in Italian EW? Stay Safe in Genova! How are you?
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