Do you join I had you as daddy but I was like and where I lived. I have drawn me and my house for you. Take care of the picture. I'm just off now for Oxford with my bundle of toys. Some for you. Hope I shall arrive in time. The snow is very thick at the North Pole tonight. Your loving father Christmas. Hello and welcome to Talking Tolkien. Today's Christmas themed edition of Talking Tolkien is going to be looking at the Father Christmas letters as you've probably already guessed. Believe it or not, it was a hundred years ago today, the 22nd of December 1920, that JRR Tolkien under the guise of Father Christmas first wrote the first ever letter from Father Christmas to his eldest son John. And that's reproduced as we just saw in this wonderful new edition of the Father Christmas letters as they were later known. Now over the years as his children got older, he continued to write them all the way up to the 1940s and his youngest daughter Priscilla. Later on in 1976, so three years after Tolkien's death, those letters were compiled by Bailey Tolkien, who was Christopher Tolkien's wife, and they were released in an edition, say in 1976. There have been a few editions over the years. We looked last year, you can look at the videos, there was a deluxe edition of it released. Which there were some issues on that, I actually sent mine back so I don't have it anymore. The stamp on the front was not very good. And previous to that there's a smaller edition that you might have seen. I have added it around somewhere but typically I can't find it at the moment. But it's about half a size of this. So for something like this, when you want them to look at details of pictures and images, it really helps to have a bigger book like this to really be able to replicate those pictures in as most accurate ways possible. And this really does bring you light to those. So this is the book itself. We'll have a little look at it. So just to tell you what the blurb on the back says, give you an idea, probably better than I could ramble on for. Every December, an envelope bearing a stamp from the North Pole would arrive for for JRR Tolkien's children. Inside would be a letter in strange spiderwee handwriting and a beautiful coloured drawing. There were from Father Christmas telling wonderful tales of life at the North Pole. How all the reindeer got loose and scattered presents all over the place. How the accident prone North Pole bear climbed the North Pole and fell through the roof of Father Christmas's house into the dining room. How there were wars with the troublesome haught of goblins who lived in the caves beneath the house. From the first note Tolkien's eldest son in 1920 to the final poignant letter to his daughter in 1943. This new edition celebrates the centenary of that first letter with a stocking full of charming letters, pictures and decorated envelopes. And is a festive feast for readers of all ages. So there's the cover we get nice and bust. This is much better than the quality we had on that deluxe edition which, you know say I wasn't too happy with that. But yeah it's really good. It's like you can see there that's like Matt. And there's the back. But through how just the quality of images is excellent. And really it's hard to see how this will be bettered. I know over on there there's a great website called Tolkien Guide and on there they went through and checked this edition against previous editions. And through this and this is basically the best edition that's got the most complete set of envelopes of letters. So if you get this I don't I think I'm correct in saying that you don't need to have any other editions if you really want to be a completist. I might be wrong. There might be one that's slipped through but I don't think there is. I think this is pretty much the want to get. And certainly 99.9% of us aren't going to notice that if it is even there. Yeah so that's this this book. What else can we say about it? So really the he got more creative as time went on so there was always a picture he paint through it. But then he started to develop narratives with the polar bear and it's quite nice to see those play out. Obviously they were created as a family thing. They weren't really designed to be ever published. But just because of all obviously the Tolkien names are draw but just because of how nice they were, their nice things have a Christmas. So that's this book. Okay I don't think there's anything else to mention on it. I'm always curious to see where they're printed actually. This one was printed in Italy by Rotterlyto. So yeah some of them were in China. So that one last year that was printed in China. That deluxe edition. Yeah it's interesting. I think Harper Collins have done a really good job this year of the editions they've released and you'll see in my other video that's coming down around the same time talking about the editions that have been released this year and there've been some great editions. I think for as far as like Tolkien collectors or fans of his work I think this year has been one of the best that I can remember for having quality copies coming out. So hopefully that got on into next year. I think that's all there is to say about this. I heartily recommend it. RRP 20 pound. I'll put a link down below down there. If you want to go through and find a final edition I'll also put a link to any other edition's stead in print on there. I say I wouldn't advise the deluxe edition that slip case to one for the money unless you're really collecting them all and wanting them all in a row. Okay that's it. So thanks for watching this video. If you enjoyed it click the like button and then click subscribe. It's yeah it's really means a lot to me and I've got loads of new subscribers recently. Thank you to every single person who's subscribed. I'll enjoy doing these videos hopefully as we get out of this year we'll have some more to come. Merry Christmas to all and a happy new year. Thank you for watching, talking, talking.