Short answers, pulled from the story.
Christopher Tolkien edited 24 volumes of his father's posthumously published writings, a task that took 45 years. These included The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and the 12-volume History of Middle-earth series published between 1983 and 1996.
J. R. R. Tolkien named Christopher his co-author of The Silmarillion in 1967. Christopher assembled a single-volume narrative from his father's incomplete and often contradictory manuscripts, admitting in 2012 that he had had to invent some passages to bridge gaps in the source material.
Christopher Tolkien commenced legal proceedings against New Line Cinema in 2008, claiming the studio owed his family £80 million in unpaid royalties. He and New Line reached an undisclosed settlement in September 2009, after which he withdrew his legal objection to The Hobbit films.
In a 2012 interview with Le Monde, Christopher Tolkien said: "They gutted the book, making an action film for 15 to 25-year-olds." He had expressed doubts about the trilogy as early as 2001, questioning whether any film could retain the essence of the work.
Christopher Tolkien moved to France in 1975 and eventually became a French citizen. He died on the 16th of January 2020, in Draguignan, Var, France, at the age of 95.
Christopher Tolkien joined the Royal Air Force in July 1943 and was sent to South Africa for flight training in early 1944. He earned his wings as a fighter pilot and was commissioned in January 1945 before eventually returning to Oxford to complete his studies.