Both the women in the photo are members of The Tolkien Society, volunteering at a local exhibition called 'J R R Tolkien's Staffordshire Odyssey' which is currently at Cannock Chase Museum.
The lady on the left spoke at length and was incredibly knowledgeable. The woman on the right came in later as we were about to leave, but I persuaded her to be in the photo too. A bit of cheek never hurts!
There I saw some original artwork by Tolkien. They were really beautiful and so detailed. Much less stylised in nature than the illustrations for LOTR and The Hobbit. You only realise than that Tolkien made a huge technical leap for the illustrations in the books. It was very interesting. Sadly, I wasn't allowed to take photos of them as they are on loan from the Bodleian Library and kept under a preservative cloth until viewed.
