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The Worlds of Fantasy
In the last ten years, fantasy writing has become one of the biggest selling
genres in publishing, the first programme in a new series explores the role
of child heroes and heroines from Peter Pan to Harry Potter and asks why
they have such an enduring appeal to writers of fiction for all ages
In Victorian Britain, fantasy writing included Lewis Carroll's Alice
adventures, JM Barrie's Peter Pan and Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies.
Changing times after World War Two produced CS Lewis' Narnia books which
were children's fables as well as carrying a biblical message.
In the 1960s writers such as Alan Garner and Roald Dahl brought a darker
kind of fantasy for children, and in the present day Philip Pullman and JK
Rowling have created a heroine and hero reflecting 21st century concerns.
Includes contributions from Philip Pullman, Alan Garner, Will Self and
Alasdair Gray. [AD,S,SL]
2
The Worlds of Fantasy
2/3. The Epic Imagination
This programme looks at the work of two very different writers working in
the 1950s, JRR Tolkein and Mervyn Peake, how they created their fantasy
worlds and how their lives influenced their creations.
Creator of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Oxford academic JRR Tolkein
created a new language, Elvish as well as detailed maps that charted his
fantasy landscape of Middle Earth. while the visionary surrealist artist
Mervyn Peake, creator of the Gormenghast trilogy's oppressive castle of
Gormenghast, populated by grotesque characters.
The programme goes on to examine how the lives and experiences of these
writers fed into the magical worlds they created, from Tolkien's service in
the First World War to Peake's childhood in Manchurian China and his
witnessing, at first hand, as a war artist, the devastation of the
concentration camps in Belsen.
With contributions from, among others, writers Joanne Harris, Kate Mosse,
Tracy Chevalier and AS Byatt. [AD,S]
A treat for your silver surfer
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