Tolkien slept here

Head of Zeus has acquired a non-fiction title which explores the life of a 7th-century warrior, said to be the real-life inspiration for J R R Tolkien's character, Aragorn.

Publishing director for non-fiction Richard Milbank bought world rights in Max Adams' The King in the North: The Life and Times of Oswald of Northumbria from Ian Drury of Sheil Land. The publisher described it as a "thrilling and rigorously researched recreation of the life of the seventh-century Northumbrian warrior-king who was the real-life inspiration for J R R Tolkien's Aragorn".

Milbank said: "This is a stunning piece of research into our early history: Max Adams rescues Oswald of Northumbria from Dark Age obscurity to reveal an unjustly forgotten English hero."

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/hoz-acquires-life-aragorn.html

Anonymous poem from Punch, after Tennyson

Block, block, block
At the foot of thy wicket, O Scotton!
And I would that my tongue would utter
My boredom. You won't put the pot on!

Oh, nice for the bowler, my boy,
That each ball like a barndoor you play!
Oh, nice for yourself, I suppose,
That you stick at the wicket all day!

And the clock's slow hands go on,
And you still keep up your sticks;
But oh! for the lift of a smiting hand,
And the sound of a swipe for six!

Block, block, block,
At the foot of thy wicket, ah do!
But one hour of Grace or Walter Read
Were worth a week of you!

Desktop meme from inzilbeth_liz and others