Will Vaus

Three days ago I posted my remembrance of Walter Hooper, C. S. Lewis' secretary in the last year of his life and later editor of many of Lewis' works. Walter passed away on December 7, 2020, as a result of complications from Covid-19. He was 89 years old. My last meeting with Walter took place during a C. S. Lewis tour I led, along with Russ Head, in 2016. Walter met with our group at the Kilns, Lewis' former home outside of Oxford. Thankfully, Rev. David Beckmann, who was then working for the C. S. Lewis Foundation as the warden of the Kilns, filmed our conversation with Walter. So I thought I would share that below...

  As many of you may know already, Walter Hooper passed away today at the age of 89. He served as C. S. Lewis' secretary for a brief period of time in 1963. He later served as one of the executors of C. S. Lewis' literary estate. Walter edited many volumes of Lewis' work and wrote some of the most important secondary works on Lewis. I will leave it to the experts to evaluate Walter's accomplishments in the arena of Lewis studies. I simply wish to take this moment to record my debt to Walter as a friend. My correspondence with Walter began in 1996 as I was preparing to lead a C. S. Lewis Tour of England for the first time. Walter graciously met with our tour group in Oxford. The photo above was taken at the Eastgate Hotel in the summer of 1997. My wife Becky and I sat at table with Walter and Lewis' step-son, Douglas Gresham. My next meeting with Walter took place in the summer of 2000. I was in Oxford taking a summer course in religious studies. I contacted Walter t...

Our first stop in Oxford was for lunch at the Eagle & Child pub where the Inklings met on Tuesday mornings for many years. From there we made our way to Magdalen College where we stood outside Lewis' rooms and read about his conversion to theism from Surprised by Joy . We also went for a stroll around Addison's Walk and read Lewis' letter to Arthur Greeves where he described his return to Christian faith under the influence of his friends, Tolkien and Dyson. After our time at Magdalen, we checked into the Eastgate Hotel (pictured below). Our home away from home for our two days in Oxford.  The Eastgate often served as a meeting location for C. S. Lewis with various friends, including Joy Davidman. The reason for this is because the Eastgate is conveniently located across the street from Magdalen whose 500 year old tower is pictured below. On Sunday morning we went to worship at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, where C. S. Lewis ...

I did not quite make the video, but I was right behind Doug Gresham, Michael Ward, and Walter Hooper on this historic occasion....

There is really only one word to describe the experience of being present in Westminster Abbey for the memorial service honouring C. S. Lewis yesterday; that word is: joy. To sit, as we did, on the ancient stone marking the grave of Geoffrey Chaucer, a few feet away from the newly carved stone in memory of C. S. Lewis, was truly amazing. The service itself was stirring from beginning to end, with music from Shadowlands  for an introit, a recorded reading by C. S. Lewis from one of his BBC talks, to a reading from The Last Battle by Doug Gresham, to the laying of a wreath by Walter Hooper, and sermon by former Archbishop of Canterbury, the most reverend Rowan Williams. "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." C. S. Lewis, Is Theology Poetry?

My day began with breakfast in the dining room of The Kilns with the sunlight streaming through the windows. I then walked into Central Oxford as C. S. Lewis did many times. As I saw a bus going up Headington Hill, I could not help but think of these lines from Surprised by Joy about a double-decker bus.... "I was going up Headington Hill on the top of a bus. Without words and (I think) almost without images, a fact about myself was somehow presented to me. I became aware that I was holding something at bay, or shutting something out. Or, if you like, that I was wearing some stiff clothing, like corsets, or even a suit of armour, as if I were a lobster. I felt myself being, there and then, given a free choice. I could open the door or keep it shut; I could unbuckle the armour or keep it on. Neither choice was presented as a duty; no threat or promise was attached to either, though I knew that to open the door or take off the corslet meant the incalculable. The choice appe...

The photo above fell out of an old picture album the other day and has been lingering in my desk ever since. The picture is of some friends and I at the Trout Inn at Godstow, Oxfordshire in 1997. Coincidentally I came across this lovely article about Snowdrops at Godstow online today: http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/4861662.Snowdrops__at_Godstow/ Walter Hooper notes on page 790 of Volume III of The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis: "The Trout Inn, one of Lewis's favourite places, is a few miles outside Oxford on Godstow Road and faces the Thames. It was built in the sixteenth century and by 1625 it was serving as an inn. The two-storey building was rebuilt in 1757. Its interior is very cosy with flagstone floors, beamed ceilings and log fires. The Inklings went there often in the summer when they could have their drinks outside by the river." Here is a photo of Lewis with James Dundas-Grant, Colin Hardie, R. E. Havard and Peter Havard at the Trout: ...

During my recent trip to Oxford I visited a number of graves. One of the church yards I visited was that of the Church of St. Cross, Holywell, pictured above. Walter Hooper writes of this church in C. S. Lewis: Companion & Guide , p. 781, Many of Lewis's friends and acquaintances lie in the cemetery adjacent to this ancient church in St Cross Road, Oxford. The earliest parts of the church date from the late 11th or early 12th century, but most of what is seen was added during the 14th-16th centuries. Charles Williams went to services here during his years in Oxford, and Dorothy L. Sayers chose it for the 'marriage' of Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane in Busman's Honeymoon . The cemetery contains the graves of many notable people, among whom are : Stella Aldwinckle; Sir Maurice Bowra (1898-1971), Warden of Wadham College; H.V.D. 'Hugo' Dyson; Austin Farrer; Katherine Farrer; Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932), author of The Wind in the Willows ; Lord Redcliffe-...

Walter Hooper has written a wonderful Foreword to my new book: The Professor of Narnia: The C. S. Lewis Story. To read the Foreword click here: http://narniaprof.blogspot.com .

The Narnia books continue to have a positive effect for good fifty years after they were penned by C. S. Lewis. Two items in the news have recently made this point. The first item regards the C. S. Lewis and Narnia murals in Northern Ireland. The one pictured above has existed for some time. An article yesterday in the Irish Times noted, "The new housing developments off the Newtownards Road are named after the author C. S. Lewis, who grew up in the area. Many of the murals now depict scenes from his Narnia books instead of paramilitary folklore." Lewis despised the sectarian hatred and warfare in his homeland. How pleased he would be to know that his fairy tales have become symbols of peace in a land once torn apart by religious strife. (You may read the whole story here: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2008/0718/1216073252587.html .) A second story in the news concerns the sale of some first editions of Lewis's books. Lewis first editions, especial...