Will Vaus

Some time ago on this blog I posted a photo of a couple sitting in a pew at Holy Trinity Headington Quarry, C. S. Lewis's parish church for over thirty years. I pointed out that the couple thought they were sitting in Lewis's pew when they really weren't. Quite a bit of discussion ensued as to whether this was the correct pew or not. Today I just came across this photo in a box of old photos. This shows Douglas Gresham sitting in the place where Jack sat when Doug attended worship services with him in Headington Quarry. As you will notice, Jack's spot was directly behind a pillar. Jack sat in this location so that the priest could not see Jack's face while the priest was preaching from the pulpit. Jack did not want to display his distaste for some of the vicar's preaching! Notably, Doug is sitting in the pew behind the one marked in the church as the Lewis brothers' pew. Of course, where C. S. Lewis sat is no more important than where

C. S. Lewis, imagining what the resurrection might be like, once wrote to his fictitious correspondent Malcolm, "I can now communicate to you the fields of my boyhood--they are building-estates today--only imperfectly, by words. Perhaps the day is coming when I can take you for a walk through them" (Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, Letter XXII). In Conversations with C. S. Lewis, Robert Velarde takes us on just such an imaginative journey with C. S. Lewis, not only to the fields of Lewis's boyhood, but throughout the major scenes of Lewis's unparalleled life. What C. S. Lewis fan hasn't longed, and dreamed of what it would be like, to actually sit down with Lewis and ask him questions about his life and thought? With this book Velarde momentarily quenches a thirst which most Lewis fans thought only a heavenly Lewisian conversation would ever satisfy. However, that is not all. Conversations with C. S. Lewis is a creative apologetic unequaled since Peter Kr

Imaginatively speaking I began living in Narnia long before that May morning in 2004. It all began one day in 1972 when my fourth grade public school teacher began reading a story aloud to our class. “Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.” I fell in love with Narnia beginning with that first chapter of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe read by Mrs. Ewing. My parents soon bought for me the boxed set of The Chronicles of Narnia and I began to devour every chapter of each book. Prince Caspian was, perhaps, my favorite of all The Chronicles at that time, partly because of the climactic battle scene where a Telmarine head gets walloped off! Every nine year old boy relishes a good sword fight, especially where knights in shining armor are involved. I was no exception to that rule. My own three boys have not been an exception either. During the time we lived in The Narnia Cottage I read all seven of The Chronicles aloud to my sons, who were then