J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit tells the story of a diminutive fellow from the shire who goes on to do great things.

But, now, it appears there is another diminutive fellow from the shire…Lincolnshire, to thank for the book as we know and love it today.

In an interview with The Guardian, Christopher Tolkien speaks of a 'young reader in Boston' who wrote to his father with a list of mistakes in The Hobbit shortly after its publication.

Christopher Tolkien said "My father wrote in a letter to his publishers Allen and Unwink, dated February 4, 1938: "I received a letter from a young reading in Boston (Lincs) enclosing a list of errata (in The Hobbit]."

The Lord of the Rings author went on to tell the publishers he then paid his youngest son to find any more errors two pence a time.
"I enclose the results – which added to those already submitted should (I hope) make an exhaustive list. I hope also they may one day be required," he wrote.

The Hobbit was first published on September 21, 1937, meaning that this 'young reader' in Boston took less than five months to collate and send these errors to Tolkien.

A revised edition of The Hobbit was next released in 1951, which is best known for altering the Gollum character to fit in with his characterisation in Lord of the Rings.

Slight corrections to the text followed in the third (1966), fourth (1978), and fifth editions (1995).