When J.R.R. Tolkien was an old man he wrote “with deep emotion” a short story called “Smith of Wootton Major”. It sprang, he said, “partly from my own experience of the bereavement of ‘retirement’, and of advancing age”.

The young Terry Pratchett, then 19 and earning his living on a local newspaper, wrote to Tolkien in appreciation: “I cannot explain the feeling of recognition … An odd feeling of grief overcame me when I read it. It was like hearing a piece of music from way back.”  Later, he recalled his experience of reading The Lord of the Rings as a 13-year-old: “I have never since then so truly had the experience of being inside the story.”