Digging Potatoes, Growing Trees

From Tolkien Gateway
Digging Potatoes, Growing Trees
Digging Potatoes, Growing Trees.jpg
EditorHelen Armstrong
PublisherThe Tolkien Society
Released1997 (Volume 1)
1998 (Volume 2)
2001 (Volume 3)
FormatPaperback booklet
Pages60 (Volume 1)
60 (Volume 2)
52 (Volume 3)
ISBN0-905520-08-4 (Volume 1)
0-905520-12-2 (Volume 2)
0-905520-13-0 (Volume 3)
SeriesPeter Roe Memorial Fund

Digging Potatoes, Growing Trees is a collection of the after-dinner speeches held at the Annual Dinners of The Tolkien Society. There have been three volumes of Digging Potatoes, Growing Trees covering speeches from 1980 to 2000. Digging Potatoes, Growing Trees has been published by The Tolkien Society as volumes 5, 6 and 11 in the Peter Roe Memorial Fund series.

Synopsis[edit | edit source]

Rayner Unwin's address from 1990 covers the plans for future Tolkien publications. From 1991, Tom Shippey examines Tolkien's position as a writer amongst his contemporaries. Colin Duriez in 1992 considered the friendship of Tolkien and C S Lewis. In 1995, Joanna Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien's granddaughter related some of her memories of her grandfather. René van Rossenberg, who spoke in 1996 discusses the growth of Tolkien Societies in Europe and how Tolkien is appreciated by those for whom English is not their first language. In 1997, Colin Duriez returned to discuss how both Tolkien and Lewis placed humanity and creativity at the centre of their work.

Volume 1[edit | edit source]

  • 1980: Tom Shippey, "Inspiration and Invention, or Where Tolkien Got Stuck"
  • 1983: Tom Shippey, "...I thought of the incident of Zeebrugge which nobody wrote about at all..."
  • 1986: Geraldine Harris, "...'Growing trees' when I should have been 'digging potatoes'..."

Volume 2[edit | edit source]

Volume 3[edit | edit source]

  • 1995: Charles A. Coulombe, "The Ethics of Escape"
  • 1998: Michael Tolkien, "Eden, Fall, Exile and Beyond"
  • 1999: Michael Scott Rohan, "Whether it was genetic or cultural or religious disposition, Tolkien loved music"
  • 2000: Patrick Curry, "On Hobbits and Elves: or Took and Baggins Again"


The Peter Roe Memorial Fund books
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