Tolkien's acclaimed modern classic `fairie' tale, read by Derek Jacobi.

Leaf by Niggle recounts the strange adventures of the painter Niggle, who sets out to paint the perfect tree. But he senses that he will be snatched away from his work long before it is finished - if indeed it could ever be finished in this world. For it is in another and brighter place that Niggle finds his tree is finished, and learns that it is indeed a real tree, a true part of creation.

Written in the early 1940s at the same time as The Lord of the Rings was taking shape, `Leaf by Niggle' is a passionate adult fairy tale about a man who has `a long journey to make', thought to be an allegory of Tolkien's own life.

This book was published 2016 by HarperCollins Publishers .

J. R. R. Tolkien was was born on the 3rd January, 1892 at Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State, but at the age of four he and his brother were taken back to England by their mother. After his father's death the family moved to Sarehole, on the south-eastern edge of Birmingham. In 1920 Tolkien was appointed Reader in English Language at the University of Leeds which was the beginning of a distinguished academic career culminating with his election as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. He is best known for writing The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, plus other stories and essays. His books have been translated into over 50 languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.