The Hobbit in July 2007?

[Lalwendë]

It'd be interesting to see if there was any smoking in the Harry Potter books. One of the things about those which intrigues me is how often the underage witches and wizards wander into the local pubs of Hogsmeade and have a Butterbeer. No wonder they're always duelling with Draco Malfoy, they're all tanked up on alcopops. I suppose this refelcts contemporary British society where if you do not drink then you are viewed as somehow suspect, yet if you manage the herculean task of ten pints of Stella or two bottles of Pinot Grigio in a night and manage to come to work next day you are hailed as an all-conquering hero. I can't even count the number of women I work with who turn psychotic if someone smokes near them, exist on a lettuce leaf at lunchtime and yet have slightly yellow, hollow faces because they drink a whole bottle of wine every evening. Bizarre.

If anyone in modern society today behaved like a Hobbit they'd have the thought police onto them in no time.

It might be unpalatable to many but Tolkien's pleasures in life included good beer, stodgy food and smoking. He then gave these same indulgences to his happiest, jolliest race of people - and what's more, made them quite evangelistic about these joys. Gloriously un-PC.

Of course, Tolkien used to even smoke his pipe when riding his bike around Oxford. That's how keen he was on the habit.