Simon Tolkien

Simon Mario Reuel Tolkien (born 1959) is a British barrister and novelist. He is the grandson of J. R. R. Tolkien, and the eldest son of Christopher Tolkien. He was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford and then Downside School. He studied modern history at Trinity College, Oxford, after which he embarked on a fifteen-year career as a criminal lawyer.^[1]

He was a barrister in London from 1994, where he lived with his wife and their two children.^{[citation needed]} He turned his hand to writing at the age of forty.^[1] His first novel, The Stepmother^[2] (published as Final Witness in the United States ^[3]), was published in 2002. His second work, The Inheritance (the first of a trilogy featuring Inspector Trave of the Oxfordshire Criminal Investigation Department), was published in 2010, and his third, The King of Diamonds, in 2011. Orders from Berlin was published in November 2012.

When Christopher Tolkien issued a statement that the "Tolkien estate would be best advised to avoid any specific association with the films",^[4] Simon Tolkien broke with the estate and offered to cooperate with the filmmakers, stating "It was my view that we take a much more positive line on the film and that was overruled by my father."^[5] Following up a 2001 interview with the Independent, Simon in 2003 gave interviews to the Daily Telegraph and other media in which he discussed his strained relationship with his father, describing it as a permanent breach.^[6] However, they have since reconciled.^[1]

Simon Tolkien currently lives in southern California with his wife Tracy.^[1]

References

External links

• Simon Tolkien website
• My Grandfather, JRR Tolkien.