Walter Hooper – författare

This is the true story of C.S. Lewis – one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century – whose books for children and adults have become much-loved classics.Part of the story of C.S. Lewis has been made famous through the film ‘Shadowlands’. Here this fascinating man’s entire life-story is told by those who knew him personally.C.S. Lewis was born in Belfast in 1898 and was sent to England for a public school education with his elder brother, Warren. Lewis exhibited a genius for imagination and perception from his earliest years. Brought up in a Christian household, Lewis lost his faith in his teenage years but was to regain it, with reluctance, as a fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford. His faith subsequently influenced his writings. He became a vigorous champion of the Christian faith through classics such as Mere Christianity and through his BBC broadcasts.His Chronicles of Narnia became children’s classics and he was deluged with correspondence from his young readers.In his latter years he unexpectedly fell deeply in love with a divorced American, Joy Greshem, and married her, only to suffer the devastation of her death a few years later. C.S. Lewis died in 1963 at his home in Oxford.During his lifetime C.S. Lewis suggested to his friend, Roger Lancelyn Green, who was a fellow English scholar, that he would undertake his biography one day. After Lewis’s death in 1963 Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper were approached by several of Lewis’s friends, to write the biography. Warren Lewis, brother to Jack, contributed a great deal to the writing. The authors had at their disposal a vast collection of letters and diaries, as well as the recollections of many surviving family members and friends.Walter Hooper has enhanced the original text with additional material to provide a new, expanded edition which all C.S. Lewis fans will be keen to own.

The lost tales of ‘Animal-land’, written and illustrated by C.S. Lewis and his brother Warnie, which they developed into the chronicles of the kingdom of Boxen, newly published to mark the centenary of the first story.Half a century before the publication of The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis created another imaginary world. The tales of ‘Animal-land’ which eight-year-old Jack (as his family knew him) had shared with his brother Warnie developed into the chronicles of the kingdom of Boxen. In a succession of stories over the next few years, the young Lewis explored its history, geography and the colourful exploits of its inhabitants in vivid detail, writing the last of the papers, his Encyclopedia Boxoniana, in April 1928.This new landmark edition marks the centenary of the very first Boxen manuscript. Here are all the stories, some never before seen, sensitively edited and arranged to make the most of the fabulous and inventive fantasy while retaining all the vigour of a child’s imaginative writing. Lavishly and charmingly illustrated by the author, and published for the very first time in colour, together with facsimile pages from the original notebooks, this book will provide a unique insight into one of the most extraordinary minds of our age. For every reader who has been captivated by the magic of Narnia, Boxen will open a window on to another enchanted land.

This selection from the writings of C. S. Lewis gathers together forty book reviews, never before reprinted, as well as four major essays which have been unavailable for many decades. A fifth essay, 'Image and Imagination', is published for the first time. Taken together, the collection presents some of Lewis's finest literary criticism and religious exposition. The essays and reviews substantiate his reputation as an eloquent and authoritative critic across a wide range of literature, and as a keen judge of contemporary scholarship, while his reviews of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings will be of additional interest to scholars and students of fantasy.

C. S. Lewis's Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature is a collection of fourteen fascinating essays, half of which were never published in Lewis's lifetime. The first three provide a general introduction to medieval literature whilst the remaining essays turn to the works of major writers such as Dante (The Divine Comedy), Malory (Le Morte d'Arthur), Spenser (The Faerie Queene) and Milton (Comus). Lewis's insightful yet accessible writing will captivate anyone with an interest in medieval and Renaissance literature.

This volume includes over twenty of C. S. Lewis's most important literary essays, written between 1932 and 1962. The topics discussed range from Chaucer to Kipling, from 'The Literary Impact of the Authorised Version' to 'Psycho-Analysis and Literary Criticism', from Shakespeare and Bunyan to Sir Walter Scott and William Morris. Common to each essay, however, is the lively wit, the distinctive forthrightness and the discreet erudition which characterizes Lewis's best critical writing.