Tolkien and Mary Renault

[GrayMouser]

Not sure this is the right subforum, but just found out that Mary Renault, one of my favorite historical fiction writers when I was younger, had Tolkien as a tutor at Oxford.

And he liked her work, too.

Letters 294:

There are exceptions. I have read all that E. R. Eddison wrote, in spite of his peculiarly bad nomenclature and personal philosophy. I was greatly taken by the book that was (I believe) the runner-up when The L. R. was given the Fantasy Award:5 Death of Grass.6 I enjoy the S.F. of Isaac Azimov. Above these, I was recently deeply engaged in the books of Mary Renault; especially the two about Theseus, The King Must Die, and The Bull from the Sea. A few days ago I actually received a card of appreciation from her; perhaps the piece of ‘Fan-mail’ that gives me most pleasure.

Given her 'pagan' outlook and attitude to sex in her writings, especially homosexuality, pretty broad-minded from the Prof.