Next spring will bring the publication of JRR Tolkien's abandoned work The Children of Hurin which he put aside in 1918. His son took up the story and, after spending 30 years editing and pruning the work, it is now finally complete. Having scraped together the different parts of the story left in odd notebooks and scraps of paper, Christopher Tolkien said: "It has seemed to me for a long time that there was a good case for presenting my father's long version of the legend of the Children of Hurin as an independent work, between its own covers."

But, although his father had already saved most of the text in archives, Christopher Tolkien has admitted that, at times, he has had to rely upon guesswork to fill in the gaps - and this may cause problems for the ardent fans of Middle Earth.

Although the blood ties are undeniably strong, can a substitute author really continue the same magic started by the original? Or could this final instalment ultimately ruin the story it set out to resolve?