Last night I was in Oxford to attend the J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature. This year’s lecture was given by V.E. (Victoria) Schwab. She’s not a writer that I am hugely familiar with, but she’s clearly hugely popular given how quickly the lecture filled up. I’m pleased to say that she provided a rousing defense of the need for diversity in fantasy literature. Also anyone with whom I can squee about the wonderfullness of K. Arsenault Rivera’s The Tiger’s Daughter is OK by me.

Of course many of you were unable to attend the lecture. But the folks at Pembroke College have been amazingly efficient and a video is now available online. It went up earlier today and I see that it already has almost 2000 views. That’s seriously impressive. If you’d like to watch, here it is.