You've got to admire Christopher Tolkien. His stewardship of his father's work has clearly been a labour of love, a deeply serious, scholarly task requiring commitment and devotion that stands in stark contrast to the crass commercialisation that, by default, accompanies the films. So when he produces a new posthumous book as by JRR Tolkien, you have to treat accusations of cashing in with skepticism.

The Children Of Hurin is definitely not new. Versions of the story appear in The Silmarillon and Unfinished Tales. It is one of the core myths of Tolkien's Elder Days, so the story will be familiar to many. However, what we have here is a carefully collated, edited, coherent, self-contained continuous narrative, and it is something of a revelation. It's a marvelous read and a great story and a thrilling journey through Beleriand. The archaic style, deliberately employed by Tolkien to give a sense of distance and deep time, may be off-putting to some readers, but it very quickly grows on you, creating a vivid, powerful sense of momentum and an epic sense of scale, with every emotion, even the pettier, meaner ones, painted in strong primary colours and the titanic forces at war and the overwhelming sense of impending doom and inescapable tragedy imbuing the whole thing with that aching sense of sadness and lovely things passing that is unique to Tolkien.

The illustrations by Alan Lee are wonderful and atmospheric. There is a useful fold-out map at the back to keep the reader oriented. Christopher Tolkien restricts his notes and comments to the introduction and the appendices, and they can be safely skipped if one is so inclined. A handsome little book well worth getting, and far from leaving me cyincal about the exploitation of Tolkien's work, it leaves me wishing for further volumes giving, for example, stories such as The Tale Of Beren And Luthien and The Fall Of Gondolin similar treatment.