What happens when Charles Dickens’s great great grandson and JRR Tolkien’s grandson get together? We get an audiobook of a 1923 classic children’s story The Rose-Coloured Wish. Before you spell it out, let us fulfil your immediate wish of knowing more about the project.  

Michael GR Tolkien is a poet and also the grandson of JRR Tolkien whose Lord of the Rings has charmed  many among you. On the other hand, despite his literary lineage, Gerald Dickens is not a writer; he is a noted actor. So Dickens is now reading the classic story that has been recreated as a verse by poet Tolkien for the new-age kids. The new book has been titled Wish.

But what brought them together? Yes, the agents of the two gentlemen had their roles to play. But one may ask whether the lineages factored while deciding the teaming-up. It may well have been a plain tactics to attract attention using the famous surnames. However, Tolkien says that it was pure ‘quality’ of Dickens as an actor that got him into the project. Actor Dickens, has a “remarkable range of tones and shades of emphasis both in narrative and dialogue,” affirms Tolkien.

The Wish, however, didn’t have a smooth run as was wished by poet Tolkien. He had wanted to get it published from a well-known publishing house. But some of the best names in publishing industry turned down the proposals forwarded by Tolkien’s agent. So, the poet had to self-publish the book from the Authorhouse.

But George Walker Bush didn’t have that sort of problem. All he had to decide was to write a book about the decisions he took as the 43rd US president. And the publishers began queuing up to get the book, Decision Points, in their kitty. Ultimately, it was Crown that had got the right to publish the book in the USA. You all know that. But what about the UK? The latest news is, Decision Points will be launched in the UK and Commonwealth countries by a Random House imprint.

 We suspect Bush must have got the advice in this regard from his long-time pal Tony Blair who once served as the British prime minister. The buddies had joined forces to pretend like the saviours of the world. Now they have joined the same publisher, Random House that is, as authors. Blair’s book, A Journey, will be published next month. With Bush joining in, things can be very lucrative for all the parties involved. Just like Iraq. So, will Dick Cheney join in next? What about writing a Bombing for Oil, or Diary of a Gold Digger, or something like that? Your suggestions please!