This book was in response to the 2022 ISTD Brief - 'Shaping the world,’ which challenged you to pick one of the top 100 most influential books and visualise its footprint on the modern world for a modern audience.  

The Lord of the Rings was the obvious choice for me, Concerning Tolkien turned out to be a passion project encapsulating my love of this epic fantasy. The book guides you through three chapters which are individually dedicated to the primary areas of influence. 

Environmentalism was considered to be the mad musings of ‘hippies.’ On the book's release, the world was being given its industrial make-over, and in hindsight founded the issues for the modern environmentalist. Tolkien writes with a passion for the environment that could sway the thought of any eco-warrior.  

War is a key part of the plot of TLOTR, and while the peoples of Middle Earth must engage in war, it is to abolish evil for good. It is not a push for power or lust for land, but a pursuit to end evil. The stance taken by the people passive nature of Hobbits embodies the spirit of peaceful protests for change.  

Tolkien's example of world-building forms a multi-billion pound  
industry, and attributes to society's desire to escape into secondary worlds. Tolkien's work with second worlds and his creation of the term ‘Mythopoeia’ has helped create surplus pop culture classics. Be it your books or board games to the film or epic role-playing computer games, Lord of the Rings will have a role in its creation or success.  

The full Lord of the Rings trilogy is One Thousand Two Hundred and Forty One pages long. The full experience includes much more literary content. The book is intimidating in its size, when speaking with the individuals who had not read The Lord of the Rings, this was one of the key reasons why.  The information is set out in short, digestible sections. Using some of Tolkien’s most influential messages as the narrator for the publication.

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