Signed Books: LORD OF MISRULE by Christopher Lee

 

I own signed books that simply feature the author's name; many (from a long career of interviewing) that have such additions as 'Nice to meet you...' or 'Thanks for the interview'; and there are some inscribed to me or to others (where I bought the volumes from booksellers or at auction) with lengthy, sometimes florid, essays!

In signing this particular book, Lord of Misrule, the seldom taciturn Christopher Lee used very few words (and a number!); but his very personal inscription is charming and delightfully pleasing. 

Modesty forbids, but if you have a copy of Lord of Misrule, you can look up the reference!  

 

 

ERIC FRASER'S 'Radio Times' art for the BBC's THE LORD OF THE RINGS

 

This post is for all you aficionados of the BBC 1981 radio serialisation of The Lord of the Rings who have been following my six-monthly Blog and Facebook journey across the original twenty-six weekly episodes as they were first broadcast on Sundays from 8 March to 30 August, forty years ago.

Here, all in one place, is the complete set of Eric Fraser's black-and-white illustrations made to accompany the credits to the weekly episodes in the BBC's listings magazine, Radio Times. 

All images, except that for the second episode ('The Shadow of the Past'), are reproduced from Fraser's original art now in my collection; in this one instance, the image used was scanned from its printed reproduction in Radio Times. (I would, incidentally, be grateful for any information about the ownership of this 'missing' piece!)

The three images made for episodes 15-17 ('The Voice of Saruman', 'The Black Gate is Closed' and 'The Window on the West') are published on this blog for the very first time since, during that three week period, there was an industrial dispute at the print-works responsible for producing Radio Times and the magazine was issued only in an slimmed-down emergency format with few, if any, illustrations. The additional image at the top of this post was a generic design Fraser made featuring Gandalf, Frodo and Sam which was used on the BBC souvenir poster for the series and, subsequently, as a decoration for the box containing the cassette-tape release of the recordings. 

 

1.  The Long-awaited Party

 

 

2.  The Shadow of the Past

 

3.  The Black Riders

 

4. Trouble at the Prancing Pony

5. The Knife in the Dark

 

6. The Council of Elrond

 

7. The Fellowship of the Ring

 

8. The Mines of Moria

 

9. The Mirror of Galadriel

 

10. The Breaking of the Fellowship

 

11. The Riders of Rohan

 

12. Treebeard of Fangorn

 

13. The King of the Golden Hall

 

14. Helm’s Deep

 

15. The Voice of Saruman

 

16. The Black Gate is Closed 

 

17. The Window on the West

 

18. Minas Tirith

 

19. Shelob’s Lair

 

20. The Siege of Gondor

 

21. The Battle of Pelennor Fields

 

22. The Houses of Healing

 

23. Mount Doom

 

24. The Return of the King

 

25. Homeward Bound

 

26. The Grey Havens