Alison Milbank talks Tolkien at the Gedling Book Festival

Dr Alison Milbank is giving a talk at 3pm on Sunday 14 June at the Gedling Book Festival about Tolkien's exploration of materialistic values in his epic fantasy novels. 

Alison explained to the Nottingham Post that Gedling helped inspire the Shire and Mordor in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as Tolkien witnessed the rise of mining in the town during his early 20s - "The mixture of landscape in Gedling at the beginning of the mining era may have had an influence on the way Tolkien saw Middle Earth".

Dr Milbank's talk will focus on Tolkien's use of the ring to symbolise fetishism: "The ring is a commodity. You see Frodo's degeneration through the book and it can be seen as a critique of materialism."

For a full festival programme, visit www.gedling.gov.uk