Last night was a bit of a pilgrimage for me. I was lent a copy of the Hobbit by a neighbour of mine when I was 8. He then said he had "deeper and darker books" for me to read. He refused to hand any over until a year later when fed up with me pestering him, he handed over the first book of Lord of the Rings. I read it very fast and demanded the others. I read the whole trilogy before I turned 10. For the next 25 years I started to read the whole thing again every year on the first day of the summer holidays - I wouldn't do anything else until I had finished it. I spent my whole childhood in Tolkien fantasy land.

The trailer for last night's film gave an inkling that the scenery and characters were as I had imagined them all that time ago - in fact, they were virtually spot on, even down to Aragorn. Sam was a little thinner in my head, but a small matter. I can't believe how fey Elijah Wood looks.

My best bits were the Mines of Moria - firstly the gates! I had forgotten that I had drawn them in gold and pinned them on my bedroom wall for years and years - seeing them again gave me a pang.

But the Balrog!! The description in the book was so scary that I never read that bit at night. After seeing it visualised for the first time yesterday (and me aged 40) I am not disappointed. It still frightened me.

I'm going to go back and see this several more times over the next couple of weeks... And I will reread the book from Saturday, the first day of my Christmas holiday!

Cheers SarahC