Do you agree with the selection? Click here and post your comments

The Lord of the Rings has remained popular since the 1960s, and became a hugely successful film trilogy. Tolkien’s themes of fellowship, sacrifice and the importance of the natural world are traceable to his experiences in the First World War, as well as to a love of folklore and of myth.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in South Africa and educated at King Edward 1V School, Birmingham, and Oxford. His mother, who inspired a love of fairytales and Roman Catholicism, died when he was 12.

While he was ill with trench fever, contracted at the Battle of the Somme, many of the ideas for The Lord of the Rings began to develop. Returning from France to Oxford, where he was professor of philology and English literature, he became friends with C. S. Lewis, whose Narnia stories also drew on early English literature, and on Christian feeling.

The Hobbit, his first successful book, recounts the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, enlisted by Gandalf to recover a stolen treasure. Nearly 20 years later came The Lord of the Rings trilogy, a more serious and ambitious work in which Bilbo’s heir, Frodo, sets out for fiery Mount Doom. It offers a minutely detailed fantasy world, complete with history and languages. Bilbo’s magic ring is discovered to be the One Ring, which the evil Sauron must regain to control the world.

One to read: The Lord of the Rings (1954-55)

Amanda Craig is a novelist and the Times children’s book reviewer. Born in South Africa, she was brought up in Italy and London and has published five novels, the most recent of which is Love in Idleness, a romantic comedy set in Tuscany. She maintains a website with children’s reading lists at amandacraig.com.

More about J. R. R. Tolkien

Read his obituary, printed in the Times on September 3, 1973

News: Faithful fans achieve quest for new Tolkien

Bryan Appleyard on The Children of Hùrin

What They're Saying About: The Children of Hùrin

See the full top 50 list here

Explore Books

• Book Extracts

• Book Reviews

• Books Group

• Audio Books

Times Recommends

• Superfreakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner
• The Times picks the 50 best paperbacks of 2009
• Vincent van Gogh’s letters show the soul of the artist