Few writers have been as well served by their editors as JRR Tolkien. If it wasn’t for the almost lifelong labours of his son, Christopher Tolkien, we would never have had the posthumous publication of The Silmarillion, let alone the extraordinary unveiling of Tolkien’s sub-creation that we read in Christopher Tolkien’s History of Middle-earth, which presents his father’s writing as it developed, revealing far more of the depth underlying it than we would have seen with just the work the Good Professor published during his lifetime.

With Christopher Tolkien’s death in 2020, we might have feared that Tolkien’s subsequent editors would not have the same dedication, nor the expertise, that allowed Christopher Tolkien to uncover the depths of his father’s work. It looks like that fear is unjustified. Brian Sibley has proved just as deft a hand here, in his presentation of the history of Númenor, as his predecessor in the editorial chair. Perhaps not so surprising, as Brian Sibley was responsible for what remains by far the best adaptation of Tolkien’s work, the BBC radion production of The Lord of the Rings. So if you have ever wondered how the kings of Númenor rose to power, and how they fell from that estate, this is the place to find out.