Short answers, pulled from the story.
"Epic Pooh" is a 1978 essay in which Moorcock critiques epic fantasy writers including J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Richard Adams. He argues their work espouses what he calls "corrupted Romance," rooted in Anglican Toryism, and is designed to comfort rather than challenge readers. The title draws a comparison between these epics and the Winnie-the-Pooh writings of A. A. Milne.
"Epic Pooh" was first published in 1978, written originally for the British Science Fiction Association. It was later revised for Moorcock's 1989 book Wizardry and Wild Romance, and updated again in a 2008 revision.
Moorcock criticises Tolkien on two grounds: the poverty of his writing style and the political conservatism of his work. He argues Tolkien's writing glorifies a vanishing rural idyll, reflects bourgeois resistance to change, and functions as escapist fiction that soothes rather than challenges. He called The Lord of the Rings "a pernicious confirmation of the values of a declining nation."
Moorcock cites Terry Pratchett, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Alan Garner approvingly in the essay as examples of fantasy writers he considers worthwhile. A 2008 revision also adds a positive mention of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials in an author's note.
Tolkien scholars have been largely critical of the essay. David Bratman suggested Moorcock never actually read The Lord of the Rings, noting the quoted fragments are "entirely out of context." Madawc Williams, writing in the Tolkien Society's journal Mallorn, called it "a shallow work; the ramblings of a light-weight thinker with a fairly average knowledge of literature."
China Mieville adopted Moorcock's critique of Tolkien's conservative politics in his own writing. Scholar Eric Sandberg noted the line of influence, pointing to Mieville's description of Tolkien's "small-minded and reactionary love for hierarchical status-quos" as an echo of Moorcock's argument. The essay became a reference point for writers seeking to engage fantasy with questions of class and political power.