As Peter Jackson’s cinematic hobbits set forth, 3-Minute Tolkien celebrates the enduring influence of the world’s most revered fantasy writer. It offers a readable, absorbing structure, dividing J.R.R. Tolkien’s life and cultural contribution into 60 neat portions, every one digestible in a mere three minutes: 20 mini-sections each on Life, Work and Influence.

From a childhood inventing new languages in the sylvan landscape of the Severn valley, through a First World War that saw him witness the horrors of the Somme, to academic success founded on a passion for Old English tales, we trace Tolkien’s life and look at the way in which it informs his creation of imaginary worlds so intricately mapped that modern readers, writers and artists continue to explore them in a quest for their myths, monsters and meaning.