Eighty years following the identification of vitamin E as an essential micronutrient, our level of requirement for this vitamin and its possible range of functions are still hot topics of debate. One reason for this is that until relatively recently there has been an extremely poor appreciation of how vitamin E is utilised and metabolised in the body. A series of recent advances in these two areas have led to a much-improved understanding of how this micronutrient is utilised. Two general pathways of vitamin E metabolism are though to exist; one involving oxidative reactions while the other is a non-oxidative pathway. A number of vitamin E metabolites have been identified in blood and urine and physiological functions have been proposed for some of these. In this review we examine these advances and indicate how this micronutrient is finally beginning to come of age.