Will Vaus

C. S. Lewis first came to Great Malvern, England in 1911. He describes it this way in Surprised by Joy , using the fictitious name "Wyvern" to disguise the identity of his school.... In January, 1911, just turned thirteen, I set out with my brother to Wyvern, he for the College and I for a preparatory school which we will call Chartres. Thus began what may be called the classic period of our schooldays, the thing we both think of first when boyhood is mentioned. The joint journeys back to school with a reluctant parting at Wyvern station, the hilarious reunion at the same station for the joint journey home, were now the great structural pillars of each year. It was at this preparatory school, pictured above and actually called "Cherbourg", that C. S. Lewis lost his faith. This was the result of several factors: a matron at school who introduced Lewis to occultism, his own struggles with prayer, and his reading in the classics. It was also at Cherbourg that...

Last night our C. S. Lewis Society in Harrisonburg, Virginia, was discussing "Jack: A Life of C. S. Lewis" by George Sayer. However, we were only able to discuss about half of Jack's life in an hour and a half! Here are the rest of the discussion questions for anyone from the group, or anyone else for that matter, who would like to comment: How do you think Lewis's life as a fellow and a tutor shaped his life and writing? How did Lewis's re-conversion to Christianity influence his outlook on his job? What people, events and discoveries were influential in Lewis's return to Christian faith? How do you see Lewis's love of nature and walking coming out in his books? Why do you think Lewis wrote his cosmic trilogy? Do you think he succeeded in accomplishing what he set out to do? What impact do you think WWII had on the writing and success of C. S. Lewis as a popular author? How do you think Lewis's BBC talks and his lectures to the RAF influenced...

In 1997 my wife and I led a C. S. Lewis Tour to England. George Sayer, C. S. Lewis's former student, friend and biographer, helped us plan what we would do for our visit to Great Malvern, the English country town where Lewis attended preparatory school between the ages of 12 and 15. Sayer told us just what we should see and even where we could go on one of Lewis's favorite walks. To top it all off, Mr. Sayer met with our group and gave us a delightful lecture on Lewis and his work, followed by a tour of Malvern College, where Lewis had been a student and Sayer himself taught English, in more recent years. To my great joy I discovered today that Dick Staub posted an interview with George Sayer on The Kindlings web site. I listened to the first part of the interview earlier today and felt like I just had a visit again with Mr. Sayer. My one regret about that visit to Great Malvern was that we had so little time together. I told Mr. Sayer that I wished we could spend a lot more...