I haven't read this in a long, long time, but it was very much a favourite of mine, and I think I'm beginning to really appreciate why. Actually, it's almost shocking: I was not prepared for how Tolkeiny it is. You have dwarves, you have elves (unseen), you have orcish monsters and trolls, a piece of jewelry as plot-token and a wise old wizard in a beard and robes; there are woods and mines and lakes and aid from a mysterious lady of great beauty and power. In other words, tons of Northern European legends and folklore driving an adventure narrative; but instead of Lord Of The Ring's epic sprawl - or even The Hobbits long wayward quest, we get an astonishingly tight, short, fast paced tale that seems to deliver it all in a concentrated dose.

Garner has expressed a certain dislike for the books, particularly the main characters and, sadly, it's easy to see why. Colin and Susan are standard English children's book children. Most of the time they fail to differ appreciably from anyone from, say, the Famous Five or Secret Seven, only rarely showing flashes of personality, usually in brief bits of dialogue. They certainly pale in comparison to the dwarves and even Cadellin (though Cadellin proves that Ian McKellan has firmly set his stamp on the cultural image of the bearded wise wizard with both his appearance and voice), who are at least built upon sturdy heroic archetypes and through their dialogues, voices, language and cadences, Garner brings them to mythic life. Difficult enough for virtual blank slates like Colin and Susan to flourish in such company, but they also have to contend with the incomparable Gowther Mossock, in whom Garner's gift for voice and dialect show themselves in all their glory, but also his concerns with people in landscapes and embedded in the history of that landscape. Colin and Susan didn't have a chance.

The book is also notable for what may well be one of the most terrifying sequences in children's literature: the Earldelving. Nothing magical or supernatural, either; just our, ahem, fellowship squirming their way through a system of pitch-black tunnels that makes the reader squirm with horror.