Now don’t get me wrong, I think Roald Dahl wrote entertaining stories that have a timeless appeal. And I can quite see why teachers continue to wheel them out to their English classes; a conversation with a secondary school librarian recently confirmed their enduring popularity with students.
I suppose it was seeing the trailers for the new ‘Hobbit’ movie that got me thinking really about the fiction diet that we offer as English professionals. You see, The Hobbit was the first class reader that I was introduced to as a Year 7 student ( First Year in old money). Reading The Hobbit required some stamina. At the risk of offending die-hard Dahl fans, I’m really not convinced that his work provides anything like the challenge that Tolkien presents.
Both Tolkien and Dahl were writers blessed with extraordinary imaginations. And both could tell a tale. But in terms of the scale of the narrative canvas, the finely wrought syntax and the richness of vocabulary, I’d say Tolkien wins hands down.
What do you think?
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