Tolkien, meanwhile, has become a writer, just as he always hoped to, although his grandfather's presence in his life was, he admits, as much an inhibition as an inspiration. He kept a diary for 10 years before daring to try to write a novel: "It was as if I was unconsciously preparing myself to be a writer while at the same time maintaining a constant mantra that I couldn't write fiction," he says. "But I can be comfortable now as the grandson of J. R. R. Tolkien, because I've got something of my own."