Most Popular Books by Brian Sibley

In this spirited comedy, soon to be an animated movie released by Dream Works, a band of intrepid chickens led by an American rooster (the voice of Mel Gibson) and an English hen (Julia Sawalha of "Absolutely Fabulous") bust out of their coop to avoid becoming pot pies. 250 full-color illustrations.

The story of C. S. Lewis''s life with Joy Davidman, his terminally ill wife.

A guide to the history and techniques of 3-D animation.

A large, lush artifact from the world of The Golden Compass, this volume documents the process of bringing the book to life. Includes exclusive cast and crew interviews, storyboards, production sketches, and on-set photos. This is the ultimate collectible for every fan

Two veteran writers collaborate on this fascinating behind-the-scenes account of the journey that took the “practically perfect” nanny from the pages of P. L. Travers’s beloved novels to the stage. Well-known British writer and radio personality Brian Sibley tells Mary Poppins’s story, from her obscure origins in Travers’s Australian childhood and her progress through the series of books Travers began to write in 1934, to her incarnation by Julie Andrews in one of the most successful Disney films of all time, to her long-awaited landing onstage in London’s West End. A long-time friend of Travers and co-writer with her of an unproduced sequel to the film, Sibley offers unique insights into the idiosyncratic author’s complex relationship to her heroine, and the decades-long series of proposals and negotiations that finally resulted in Disney Theatrical Productions joining forces with the Cameron Mackintosh Theatrical Group to realize Travers’s stories as a spectacular work of musical theater. Sibley’s details the entire development process of the show’s script, music, choreography, and design, culminating in a glorious opening night on December 15, 2004 in London’s Prince Edward’s Theatre, as Mary Poppins is met by cheering sold-out houses and critical raves. In the book’s second half, Michael Lassell gives a fascinating backstage account of the show’s transfer to Broadway, including the show’s American casting and important changes to its book, lyrics, and designs, as the creative team strives to “plus” Poppins to perfection.

Packed with behind-the-scenes photographs and exclusive interviews with cast and crew, this official illustrated guide tells the detailed story of the making of the final film in the award-winning Hobbit trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson.

Writer and broadcaster Brian Sibley is a foremost expert on The Lord of the Rings (he adapted the novel for the award-winning BBC radio dramatisation in 1980), and here in this clothbound hardback he will take you to the First Age of Middle-earth, many thousands of years before the events chronicled in The Lord of the Rings. This was the setting for the great War of the Jewels, as recounted in J.R.R. Tolkien''s The Silmarillion and includes a gazetteer of the many places shown on the full-colour illustrated map which accompanies the book. The Map of Beleriand and the Lands to the North is faithfully reproduced in full colour by world-renowned Tolkien artist John Howe, the conceptual artist employed by Peter Jackson to work on his multi-award winning Lord of The Rings film trilogy, and who is soon to work on Guillermo del Toro''s Hobbit film. The map is based on the original map by Christopher Tolkien. Embellished with heraldic emblems and dramatic scenes from The Silmarillion, it completes the trio of authorized Tolkien maps by John Howe which can be removed for reference or even for framing. Each element in this collector''s package is special; together they provide an enchanting and desirable artefact that will be a prized possession of Tolkien readers of all ages.

This deluxe slipcased two-volume set is an insider''s tour of twenty years of movie-making magic at Weta Workshop and Weta Digital, the creative team behind such celebrated films as ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''Avatar'', ''The Avengers'', ''King Kong'' and ''District 9''. Brimming with never-before-published content, including concept designs, sketches, behind-the-scenes photographs, and interview material from cast and crew members, it is a look at how the sets, costumes, creatures and characters, weaponry, and visual effects are created for the world''s most iconic films.

Before Middle Earth there was Beleriand, the setting of the great War of the Jewels which took place 7000 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings. This is a full colour, fold-out poster map of Beleriand, with a booklet about the territory

J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote: "I wisely started with a map, and made the story fit." The Maps of Middle-earth presents four of Tolkien''s iconic maps, reimagined and newly updated for this edition by acclaimed Tolkien artist, John Howe, and richly decorated with scenes from the books: Middle-earth, a breath-taking panorama of all the locations from Hobbiton to Mordor that feature in The Lord of the Rings; Wilderland, a charming evocation of the realm to which Bilbo journeyed ''there and back again'' in The Hobbit; Beleriand, a lyrical portrayal of the ancient landscape of the First Age, where the great tales of The Silmarillion took place; Númenor, an exclusive reproduction of the legendary island described in Unfinished Tales, which was sunk beneath the waves in the Second Age of Middle-earth. The maps are accompanied by an authoritative text written by Brian Sibley, which tells the stories behind The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, and gives accounts of how the original maps came into being. Filled with illustrations by John Howe, many of which appear here for the first time, the book also features gazetteers of all the names on each of the four maps. They provide revealing insights into the significant role each place-name played in the stories, including those of Númenor, the island-kingdom once inhabited by Elendil and his sons, Isildur and Anárion, ancestors of Aragorn, that was sunk in a cataclysmic storm following the treacherous deeds of Sauron, as told in Of the Rings of Power in The Silmarillion.

A companion to "The Chronicles of Narnia," explaining how their creator, C.S. Lewis, came to write them, what sort of person he was, and the hidden meaning of the Narnia stories.