"Very much the best book about J.R.R. Tolkien that has yet been written." -- A.N. Wilson
"A highly intelligent book ... Garth displays impressive skills both as researcher and writer." -- Max Hastings
"It is a strange story that Garth tells, but he tells it clearly and compellingly." -- Tom Shippey
"Somewhere, I think, Tolkien is nodding in appreciation." -- Charles Matthews, San Jose Mercury News
"Gripping from start to finish and offers important new insights." - Library Journal
"A labor of love in which journalist Garth combines a newsman's nose for a good story with a...

"Where are you going to spend the holidays, Frank?" The speaker was Henri Martin, a French boy of the new type that has sprung up in France since games like football and tennis began to be generally encouraged. He asked the question of his schoolmate, Frank Barnes, son of a French mother and an American father. Frank's name was really Francois; his mother had that much to do with his naming. But he was a typical American boy, none the less, and there was a sharp contrast between his sturdy frame and that of the slighter French boy who had become his best chum in the school both were attending...