If you have a Lord of the Rings or Hobbit fan amongst your friends or family members, this little book could just be the perfect Christmas present.  It looks fantastic (in both senses of the word) and it’s reasonably priced.  The sort of book you could read right through and examine in great detail – or simply dip into when you have a spare half hour.

Designed as a companion to Tolkien’s books from The Hobbit through to the Silmarillion, there is a satisfying mix of illustrations, genealogies, chronologies and maps.  An unofficial book, not authorised by the Tolkien estate, it was never intended to be a substitute for reading the original books and you won’t find any complete stories.  But you will find a wealth of information which will make following the books themselves more straightforward and arguably even more compelling than they already are.  Be careful though if you already possess the Tolkien Encyclopedia or World of Tolkien or the Tolkien Bestiary as some of the information included in those books is repeated in this new one.

Even if you are, like me, not someone who knows your orks from your ents and doesn’t particularly care about the exact time-line of the development of Middle Earth, you will find much to like in the artwork, the varied fonts and the colour and feel of the pages on which this book is printed.  The faux leather cover is a work of art in its own right – much more interesting than it sounds.  And as far as I can tell, not being an expert on the subject myself, the author David Day knows his stuff.

Tolkien-An Illustrated Atlas is published by Cassell and is available in bookshops now.