The Latest Breaking News from JRR Tolkien

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and I have precious little in common. But one important thing we share is The Lord of the Rings. Both she and I regard the J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy as a personal “sacred text” which has profoundly shaped our values and our political commitments.

Fifteen questions on general knowledge and topical trivia, plus a few jokes, every Thursday. How will you fare?

Yes, Aragorn is missing his pants, but Ralph Bakshi's animated epic still rules.

Giorgia Meloni’s involvement highlights government’s growing interest in shaping output of Italy’s cultural institutions

Giorgia Meloni and the hard right are celebrating JRR Tolkien’s saga – while taking over Italy’s key cultural institutions, says Florence-based author Jamie Mackay

The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes who Created the Oxford English Dictionary is a celebration of words and word-people: authors, editors, publishers, linguists, lexicographers, philologists, obsessives, pedants. Its author, Sarah Ogilvie, was formerly an Oxford English Dictionary editor and wrote the 2013 book Words of the World: A Global History…

In a moment of distraction from the laborious work of marking an “enormous pile of examination papers”, J.R.R. Tolkien flipped to a blank page on a student essay and scribbled, “in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit”.

Howard Shore’s score beat soundtracks from films including Star Wars, Chariots Of Fire and Titanic.

Howard Shore’s score beat out several classic film scores to win the heart of the UK

The £2 coin features The Lord Of The Rings author’s monogram encircled by a ring of intricate runic patterns.

Actor Andy Serkis narrates the posthumously published prelude to Tolkien’s epic masterpiece – a dense yet rich compendium of meticulously crafted lore