A house fit for a hobbit: Home of Tolkien publisher goes on sale

By Eifion Rees -PUBLISHED:Mail Online - 25 August 2012

In 1936, ten-year-old Rayner Unwin was asked by his father, the publisher Sir Stanley Unwin, to read the manuscript of a new children’s book and provide him with a written report, for the princely sum of one shilling.
‘This book, with the help of maps, does not need any illustrations and should appeal to all children between the ages of five and nine,’ the boy reviewer noted. JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit was published by George Allen & Unwin the next year and has since sold an estimated 100 million copies.
Rayner followed his father into the family firm and eventually became its chairman, during which time he published Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings and later Roald Dahl’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and James And The Giant Peach.

Fantasy home: JRR Tolkien and Roald Dahl were regular guests at Lime Cottage visiting their publisher Rayner Unwin

An editor of the old school, Rayner’s loyalty to his authors led to him befriending many. Now the family home where he entertained writers including Tolkien and Dahl – Limes Cottage, in Little Missenden, near Amersham, Buckinghamshire – is for sale at £1.6 million.
The path leading up to the front door of this Grade II-listed 17th Century property is lined with lush borders.

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