Michael Tolkien was born in Birmingham in January 1943, and is a grandson of the late J.R.R Tolkien. He was brought up in a rural community in the Chiltern Hills, South Oxfordshire until 1956. Following his father's changes of employment, he returned to suburban Birmingham for two years before moving to the Vale of Pickering in North Yorkshire and to Ribblesdale in Lancashire. He feels a close and lasting affinity with these two places.
He studied for an MA in English Language and Literature at the University of St Andrews, and a B.Phil in Restoration and 18th Century English Literature at Merton College, Oxford. He settled in Rutland and was a secondary school teacher from 1968 until early retirement due to ill health in 1994. Since then he has worked as a freelance lecturer, in adult education, and focused on his own writing and reviewing.
He has married three times since 1967 and is thankful for all the best memories
and unique qualities and gifts of children, step-
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