Chris Smith, deputy publishing director, said: “The art that complemented and enhanced these tales would only be seen in fragments over the following years, in calendars or in academic works, and it was not until the record-breaking exhibitions of 2018 that a new global audience would finally be able to appreciate J R R Tolkien’s extraordinary artistic achievement.

“This overwhelmingly positive response resulted in the first ever edition of The Lord of the Rings illustrated by its author, which proved hugely popular with readers around the world, and it is with great pleasure that we are now able to accompany this with an edition of The Silmarillion, at last presented with a wonderful selection of J R R Tolkien’s paintings, drawings and designs that capture the beauty and drama of the First and Second Ages of Middle-earth.”

Trotter wrote:

I notice that the page count is different between the UK and US, but I think that is probably an error and they are both the same number of pages.

Gloinson wrote:

Seems like they're trying to create four sets of hardbacks simultaneously:

1) the illustrated (by other artists) standard hardbacks;
2) the illustrated (by other artists) deluxe hardbacks (so far just The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and The Complete Guide to Middle-earth) - personal favorite so far;
3) the illustrated (by Tolkien) standard hardbacks (albeit more expensive than most hardbacks) (so far just The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion); and
4) the illustrated (by Tolkien) deluxe hardbacks (so far just The Lord of the Rings).

I suppose HarperCollins is trying to develop products for different types of readers/consumers in light of anticipated demand from the Amazon series. However, for collectors, it has made keeping up rather pricey.

Druss wrote:

No info about a deluxe version ?