The book opens with an introduction to the various parts and chapters of The Lord of the Rings and links this to a subsequent A-Z section, divided into sub-sections, e.g. beings, places, events, writing, themes. The last part of the book is a brief biography of Tolkien, with information on his professional life, his friends (such as C.S. Lewis and the Inklings) and the shape of his thought and work. This is a refocused and updated version of his earlier book, Tolkien and Middle-Earth Handbook (Monarch, 1992).