Colin Duriez – författare

The Oxford Inklings tells the story of the friendships, mutual influence, and common purpose of the Inklings - the literary circle which congregated around C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.Meeting in pubs or Lewis's college rooms, they included an influential array of literary figures. They were, claimed poet and novelist John Wain, bent on 'the task of redirecting the whole current of contemporary art and life'.Tolkien and Lewis expert Colin Duriez unpacks the Inklings' origins, relationships, and the nature of their collaboration. He shows how they influenced, encouraged, and moulded each other. Duriez also covers the less celebrated Inklings, neglected, he claims, for too long.What did they owe - and offer - to the more acknowledged names? What brought them together? And what, eventually, drove them apart from their initial focus upon each other's writings?

Long before the successful The Lord of the Rings films, J.R.R. Tolkien's creations, imagination, and characters had captured the attention of millions of readers. But who was the man who dreamt up the intricate languages and perfectly crafted world of Middle-earth?Tolkien had a difficult life, for many years: orphaned and poor, his guardian forbad him to communicate with the woman he had fallen in love with, and he went through the horrors of the First World War. An intensely private and brilliant scholar, he spent over fifty years working on the languages, history, peoples and geography of Middle-earth, with a consistent mythology and body of legends inspired by a formidable knowledge of early northern European history and culture. J.R.R. Tolkien became a legend by creating an imaginary world that has enthralled and delighted generations. This delightful and accessible biography brings him to life. Colin Duriez has appeared as a commentator on DVDs of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings, and BBC television's The Worlds of Fantasy. He is also the author of The Inklings Handbook (with the late David Porter), J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: The Story of Their Friendship, and Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings, and has contributed to definitive reference works, The Tolkien Encyclopedia and a number of other tomes relating to Tolkien.

'C.S. Lewis: A Biography of Friendship' is a fascinating and insightful plunge into the life of a literary legend through the friends he keep closest.Through collecting previously unpublished research, interviews and insider knowledge, Colin Duriez has compiled a sparkling biography of C.S. Lewis by studying his closest friends, family and the famous literary society, the Inklings. These key relationships helped to influence his academic thoughts, his personal beliefs and his world-renowned books. So what can we learn from these people?- What kind of impact did his life-long friend, Arthur Greeves, have on the legend?- How influential were J.R.R. Tolkien and the other members of the 'Inklings' on his career and life?- Why did he move in with a single mother twice his age, Janie Moore, and live with her until her death?- Why did he marry so late?- What about his alcoholic and gifted brother?This wonderfully produced book offers a striking and tangible image of the Oxford professor, children's author and out-spoken Christian. It's a joy to read and an ideal gift to Lewis fanatics.

Dorothy L. Sayers was a woman of contrasts.A strong Christian, she had a baby - out of wedlock - by a man she did not love. Possessing a fierce intellect, she translated Dante, and also created one of the most popular fictional detectives ever in Lord Peter Wimsey. Drawing on material often difficult to access, particularly her collected letters, Colin Duriez reassesses Sayers’ life, her writings, her studies, and her faith to present a rich and captivating portrait of this formidable character.

The battle between good and evil—in both the seen and unseen worlds—was as clearly at play in the era of C. S. Lewis and his friends in the Oxford literary group, the Inklings, as in our own era. Some of the members of the Inklings carried physical and psychological scars from World War I which led them to deeply consider the problem of evil during the dark era of World War II. Were they alive today, their view of a spiritual conflict behind physical battles would undoubtedly be reinforced.Among the Inklings, Lewis was at the forefront of writing on human pain, suffering, devilry, miracles and the supernatural, with books like The Screwtape Letters and more. It is no surprise, then, that he provides the main focus of this bookby expert Inklings writer Colin Duriez. J. R. R. Tolkien''s The Lord of the Rings trilogy offers another rich resource with much to say to the World War II era and beyond. Other Inklings writings and conversations come into play as well as Duriez explores the writers'' considerations of evil and spiritual warfare, particularly focused in the context of wartime.Delving into the interplay between good and evil, these pages enlighten us to the way of goodness and the promise of a far country as we explore the way out of the shadow of evil.

Both Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are literary superstars, known around the world as the creators of Middle-earth and Narnia. But few of their readers and fans know about the important and complex friendship between Tolkien and his fellow Oxford academic C.S. Lewis. Without the persistent encouragement of his friend, Tolkien would never have completed The Lord of the Rings. This great tale, along with the connected matter of The Silmarillion, would have remained merely a private hobby. Likewise, all of Lewis' fiction, after the two met at Oxford University in 1926, bears the mark of Tolkien's influence, whether in names he used or in the creation of convincing fantasy worlds.They quickly discovered their affinity—a love of language and the imagination, a wide reading in northern myth and fairy tale, a desire to write stories themselves in both poetry and prose. The quality of their literary friendship invites comparisons with those of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Cowper and John Newton, and G.K. Chesterton and Hillaire Belloc. Both Tolkien and Lewis were central figures in the informal Oxford literary circle, the Inklings.This book explores their lives, unfolding the extraordinary story of their complex friendship that lasted, with its ups and downs, until Lewis's death in 1963. Despite their differences—differences of temperament, spiritual emphasis, and view of their storytelling art—what united them was much stronger, a shared vision that continues to inspire their millions of readers throughout the world.†

Tras el éxito en el cine de la trilogía El Señor de los Anillos, el mundo recreado por Tolkien ha capturado la atención de millones de lectores en todo el mundo. Pero ¿quién fue realmente ese hombre, capaz de idear semejante universo?Sus primeros años fueron difíciles: huérfano y pobre, se le prohibió comunicarse con la mujer que amaba, y vivió de cerca los horrores de la Primera Guerra Mundial. Dedicó largos años a desarrollar los personajes e historias de su Tierra Media, su geografía, sus lenguajes y su mitología, manifestando un conocimiento formidable de la historia y de la cultura. Esta accesible biografía ayuda a conocer cómo se gestó este gigante de la literatura.