Britains favourite old fogey before his time AN Wilson goes to seek out the real Clive Staples Lewis, well known author of the Narnia books, Oxford don and Christian writer.
I only got a glimpse of CS Lewis from the original BBC film, Shadowlands. When that was turned into a play actors playing Lewis fleshed out the real person, a shy bookish University Don who fell in love later in life to divorcée Joy Gresham which as Wilson explains, there was more to Lewis that that.
As a 9 year old boy from Belfast, he was sent to boarding school when his mother died and lost in the world of Norse mythology.
Although Lewis was a private man in the all male world of academia, Wilson gleans out that Lewis as a younger man had a close friendship with a much older lady, Mrs Moore maybe a mother surrogate and also probably his lover.
He was a close friend of JRR Tolkien whom he discussed theology. Lewis was an atheist who became a devout Christian and became well known for his radio broadcasts during the second world war.
Wilson manages to talk to his ex pupils including the celebrated actor Robert Hardy. We get more than a sketch of Lewis but I think we could had got even more of the man, maybe from Lewis's own writing and broadcasts.
When Lewis died few people turned up at his funeral as his drunk brother forgot to tell people the time of his funeral. Which is rather sad but the author will always entertain a generation of children through his Narnia books.