Will Vaus

The next stop on my Hidden Story of Narnia Book Tour will be next weekend, December 4-5, in Easton, Maryland. There is a good article about that here: http://www.stardem.com/article_b1b6dca3-a48d-51c9-b350-e0731fb653de.html . Also, the third part of my interview with Mark Sommer of Hollywood Jesus.com has been posted here: http://live.hollywoodjesus.com/?p=6584 .

The HarperCollins C. S. Lewis Blog recently posted a piece I wrote for children entitled: C. S. Lewis and His Mice . You may read the blog here: http://booksbycslewis.blogspot.com/2010/11/c-s-lewis-and-his-mice.html . (Illustration above is by Pauline Baynes from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader .)

Mark Sommer is in the process of publishing an interview he did with me about C. S. Lewis, Narnia, and my book--"The Hidden Story of Narnia". The telephone interview was conducted in the midst of my book tour while I was at the Marion E. Wade Center of Wheaton College. You can read the first part of the interview here: http://live.hollywoodjesus.com/?p=6580 .

I began my last day in Oxford with a visit to The Victoria Arms Pub in Marston. You may ask: "Why?" The answer is: simply because it is mentioned in Sheldon Vanauken's "A Severe Mercy" and figures in some of the Inspector Morse stories by Colin Dexter. The heavy frost that morning was especially enchanting. C. S. Lewis wrote to a young correspondent in 1955, "We had our first frost last night--this morning the lawns are all grey, with a pale, bright sunshine on them: wonderfully beautiful. And somehow exciting. The first beginning of winter always excites me: it makes me want adventures." Oxford was replete that morning with that quality which Reginald Fanshawe once called "grey magic". "Calm, cold, and sad, the soft mists brooding bathe In ghostlier glamour chapel, tower, and hall, Dome, pinnacle, spire; they clasp and subtly swathe Oxford's grey magic. Cold and calm the pall On blade and branch, as for life'...

The big event today was a tour of Sheldon Vanauken's Oxford with my new friend, Jim Belcher, author of Deep Church . We began the day with a visit to the minute village of Binsey which Vanauken mentions numerous times in his bestselling book, A Severe Mercy . One of our first stops was St. Margaret's Church where Van and Davy's ashes were scattered. Our walk in Binsey was a misty one and therefore all the more memorable. We stopped at The Perch for lunch. Where Jim consented to pose with my son Joshua's handmade "Aslan". For more about Aslan you may view the other blog I have been doing during this trip. http://aslantoengland.blogspot.com . We crossed over the "humpbacked" bridge which Vanauken mentions in the book I am holding. Then it was on to the center of Oxford where Jim introduced me to the most spectacular view of The Radcliffe Camera and The University Church of St. Mary the Virgin. This view can only be seen from The Fello...

This was the view out my window as I woke up this morning in C. S. Lewis' bedroom at The Kilns. It was a beautiful autumn morning with a mixture of clouds and blue sky with rays of sunshine peeking through. When I came downstairs the breakfast table was lovingly set for me in the dining room by Dr. Debbie Higgins, Warden of The Kilns. I greatly enjoyed a peaceful breakfast by myself as I gazed out the window at the rose trellis and the moss along the wall with birds flitting about and singing merrily. Then it was off to worship at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, where the Lewis brothers worshiped together for more than thirty years. This was the view from where we sat. It was a very meaningful Remembrance Sunday Service as we remembered and gave thanks for the lives of all those who gave their all for their country in the First World War and all the wars since. We sat near the Narnia window (above) and paid a visit to the Lewis brothers' grave (below) after the...

I was in Watford, England today for a book-signing at the Living Oasis Bookshop run by Jill (far left) and Jane (far right). Standing next to me, on the right, is Anne Waller Jenkins who loved the Narnia books as a child, wrote to C. S. Lewis with a question about The Silver Chair , and got a letter back! That letter served as the inspiration for my book, The Hidden Story of Narnia: A Book-by-Book Guide to C. S. Lewis' Spiritual Themes. It has been wonderful to meet Anne, to sign books at the Rainbow Fayre at her church near Watford, as well as visiting all the delightful people who came out to Living Oasis today to buy my book! Anne and her husband Steve also took me on a tour of Watford for the past couple of days. Many people probably do not realize that C. S. Lewis first went to boarding school in Watford in 1908. Above is a photo of what the original school building looked like. Below is what the site looks like today. The building has changed but the tall cedar tree ...