Tolkien graduated with a First in English Language and Literature at Exeter College, Oxford.

In 1925 he was elected Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, where he worked with great skill and enthusiasm for many years.

After retirement, Tolkien and his wife lived in the Headington area of Oxford.

JRR Tolkien's fantasy writing has achieved cult status.

The Hobbit (1937), developed as a bedtime story for his children, is about the adventures of a friendly gnome-like creature, Bilbo Baggins, who has to destroy a dragon who menaces a rural community.

The Lord of the Rings (1954-5) has the same characters, again engaged in a quest to destroy evil.

In this more ambitious work, Tolkien created Middle Earth, a long gone time with its own history and mythology.

He also wrote The Silmarillion (1977).

The Lord of the Rings, took twelve years to complete and was not published until Tolkien was approaching retirement.

He was Merton Professor of English Language and Literature from 1945-59.