Tolkien card's a great find but don't make a Hobbit of it

Published on Tuesday 8 July 2008 22:16

A DEMOLITION worker was celebrating yesterday after stumbling across a postcard sent to JRR Tolkien, hidden behind a fireplace in his former home.

Stephen Malton made the discovery while unscrewing the fireplace at The Lord of the Rings author's bungalow in Poole, Dorset, when the bulldozers moved in.

The 42-year-old is hoping to sell the fireplace, postcard, a bronze fairy and stone gryphon which were found in the garden, at auction at a later date.

Mr Malton, who owns the Bournemouth-based firm, ProDem Demolition, said: "To find something with the Tolkien name on it is quite amazing."

Fans of the author are upset at the demolition of the historic three-bedroom bungalow in Lakeside Road, where Tolkien retired with his wife, Edith, in 1968.

The postcard is dated 1968 and addressed to the author at the Miramar Hotel, Bournemouth, where he and Edith spent many holidays.

It depicts a landscape in Cork, Ireland, and is signed "Lin", believed by Mr Malton to be the fantasy author Lin Carter, who wrote A Look Behind the Lord of the Rings, published in 1969.