Books of the year: Worlds of fantasy and fame brought home to the local

From JRR Tolkien’s letters, and Matthew Gasada’s plays, to Back to the Local by Maurice Gorham, Michael Duggan selects his books of the year

JRR Tolkien: The Ring encapsulates and exposes one of our defining delusions of power and how we would use it. Picture: AP

The Letters of JRR Tolkien: Revised and Expanded edition edited by Humphrey Carpenter with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien (Harper Collins, £30.00)

I was a late convert to JRR Tolkien. At the very time in my life, male adolescence, when (at least, as far as the stereotype goes) I should have been most susceptible to him, I was, in fact, completely indifferent, greeting any reference to The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit with a shrug. I wasn’t hostile but I had no interest in him or the fantasy genre.