A new book by Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien is going on sale – 100 years after it was first conceived.

Beren and Lúthien has been described as a “very personal story” that the Oxford professor thought up after returning from the Battle of the Somme.

It was edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and contains versions of a tale that became part of The Silmarillion.

The book features illustrations by Alan Lee, who won an Academy Award for his work on Peter Jackson’s film trilogy.

It is being published on Thursday by HarperCollins on the 10th anniversary of the last Middle Earth book, The Children of Húrin.

Image copyrightALAN LEE

Image caption

Beren and Lúthien is a love story that was partly inspired by Tolkien’s wife, Edith

Tolkien specialist John Garth, who wrote Tolkien And The Great War, said the Hobbit author used his writing like an “exorcism” of the horrors he witnessed in World War One.

He said: “When he came back from the trenches, with trench fever, he spent the winter [of 1916-1917] convalescing.

Media captionAlan Lee won an Oscar for his work on Peter Jackson’s film trilogy

“He’d lost two of his dearest friends on the Somme and you can imagine he must have been inside as much of a wreck as he was physically.”

Mr Garth said on a walk in an East Yorkshire wood Tolkien’s wife Edith danced in a glade filled with white flowers, which became the key scene in Beren and Lúthien.

He said: “Mr Tolkien felt the kind of joy he must have felt at times he would never feel again.”

The names Beren and Lúthien are carved on the gravestone Tolkien and his wife share in Wolvercote cemetery in Oxford.