About the Author

John Burrow, now retired, was formerly Professor of Middle English Language and Literature in the University of Bristol. Terence Tiller, himself a poet, is ideally placed to convey the colloquial immediacy and spiritual intensity of Langland's verse. J R R Tolkien was Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford 1945-59. Author of a number of works of criticism, he is most famous for two works of fiction - The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.