Aragorn's stance with Gollum was a harder line to tread than I imagined it would be when I started this. I couldn't have Aragorn as anything other than decent and yet we know he deprived Gollum of food and drink, gagged and bound him and was 'not gentle'. I decided Gollum had to behave very badly to deserve such treatment.[No I wouldn't particularly want to meet him either!]

I think the book you are refering to is Paul Kocher's 'Master of Middle-earth' which has a whole chapter on Aragorn.

Thank you so much for your comments [and the typo].