The Step Back

I’m not particularly pro-royalty. But I’m not a republican either.

Some of the Royals get on my nerves. Others seem a little assuming of their position. But the Queen and her consort have shown how it’s done. For 73 years of marriage and 69 years of reigning.

It was in 1952 that he voluntarily took a step back. The Duke of Edinburgh could have had a glittering career. He could have turned his hand to anything. A survivor himself of war and exile, he had steel, that’s for sure.

He chose to hone that steel into a shield of protection.

With the Queen’s accession to the throne, he took a permanent step back. Always the companion, always the consort. Always there in the background. But always ready to step forward and deflect criticism, helping with the weight of serving a nation.

And to do that for the rest of his life.

At their Golden Wedding, the Queen commented:

"He is someone who doesn't take easily to compliments but he has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know."

As a nation mourns today, we can be grateful for a man who showed how to serve, how to prefer others.

A life of service indeed.

The Serendipity of the Fantasy Trilogy

Where does the concept of a book trilogy come from? And in particular, the vast market for fantasy trilogies?

The idea of a trilogy goes as far back as Greek literature but it found its recent popularity through serendipity.

When JRR Tolkien finished his book The Lord of the Rings, his publisher had a problem. One look at the vastness of the book Tolkien had written caused Allen & Unwin to look at a different route to market.

The year was 1954. War rationing was still a thing. And there was a real problem with publishers being able to source quality paper for printing. In addition there was a concern with a potential financial loss due to the high cost of type-setting and the publisher’s calculation of the modest sales resulting from such an unusual book.

Tolkien actually tried another publisher but in the end accepted that whatever Allen & Unwin said was better than no book at all.

The publisher suggested splitting the book into three. For this they had to agree to new titles - something Tolkien was reluctant to do, not least because he saw the book being formed from seven smaller parts. But Allen & Unwin got their way and the first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring went to press in October 1954. The Two Towers followed in 1955 and the final book, The Return of the King in 1956.

And so was born the modern concept of the fantasy trilogy. Many have been the acolytes to Tolkien’s work, though in my view none have come close.

It all happened because of a cautious publisher. And boy did they get their projections wrong with the modest estimate on sales. To date the trilogy has sold over 150 million copies, making it one of the top five best-selling books of all time.

The fantasy trilogy - all because a publisher was reluctant to fund the costs for one book. Serendipity indeed.