Tanya, do yourself a favour and read "The Hobbit" first - by far and away the best Tolkien IMO!

BW, I misspelt Diana's name - should be Diana Wynne Jones - usually files under "J" at the library. You don't often see her adult novels at the bookshop, get them at the library instead. There's one that's my all time fave, forget the title but it's set around a Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention, it's a hoot!

Abby, I loved Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, once I got past the first 3rd of the book! Gripping towards the end, wasn't it?

Also, (how could I forget to mention these) - not really fantasy but if you read fantasy you will LOVE them - the books by Gregory Maguire. He takes an old tale (eg Cinderella) and then reworks it into a novel. I've read "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" and "Mirror Mirror" - they were all great reads.

I forgot another *excellent* trilogy by an australian author - Sean Williams (who later got roped into writing some of the Star Wars stuff) - "The stone mage and the sea"; "The sky warden and the sun"; "The storm weaver and the sand". V interesting cos it's sort of set in a futuristic Australian-kind of environment but is essentially a fantasy novel. Haven't read anything else of his though.