Thomas Alan Shippey (1943) is one of the most well known
scholars on J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as fantasy and science
fiction in general. He describes himself as a "Tolkien polemic".
Many commenters have noticed the parallels between his life and
Tolkien's: born in a colony, moved to Birmingham at a young age,
followed by an academic career in Oxford and Leeds. Shippey was
born in India, where his father worked as a bridge builder. He
spent the first several years of his life there. His father then
sent him to a strict boarding school in England, and when his
father came back, Shippey was transfered to King Edward's School
in Birmingham, where he studied from 1954 to 1960. Here he was
introduced to science fiction, and The Hobbit, which was lent to
him when he was 14 years old. Shippey quickly developed an
affinity for Old English, Old Norse, German and Latin (like
Tolkien) and playing rugby (like Tolkien), and he was able to
afford The Lord of the Rings when he won a school contest.
Shippey did not immediately