C S Lewis: an academic best known for his books for children

A short biography

Clive Staples Lewis was born on 29th November 1898, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His father was a local solicitor. His mother died when he was nine and he was sent away to school immediately afterwards. After attending several preparatory schools he went to Malvern College where he became interested in Norse and Celtic literature. He also had private tuition that helped him to develop his critical skills to a high degree.

World War I interfered with his academic career, thus a period in the trenches, ending with convalescence from a war wound, preceded his arrival at Oxford in 1919 to read classics. To honour a pledge made to a fellow soldier named Paddy Moore, who did not survive the war, Lewis offered to support his mother, which he did by moving into her Oxford house where he lived with the mother and her daughter. Lewis lived there, and in another house when the Moores moved in 1930, until his own death.

At Oxford University Lewis achieved first-class degrees in both classics and English language and literature, and was eventually (in 1925) offered a fellowship and tutorship in English at Magdalen College. He continued to teach at Oxford for 30 years.

His religious views developed from agnosticism to Christianity, especially after…