C.S. Lewis: A Biography

After years of hearing that Wilson's book was a 'hatchet job', I was surprised and delighted by how detailed, thoughtful and entertaining this biography really is. But I fear it will do little to halt the "ghettoization" of C.S. Lewis studies by the small, narrow conclave of so-called Christians who insist on turning the man into a saint.

Some of the reviews here are quite disturbing. Lewis in the dock? Filth? - Those people must be talking about a different book, surely. Wilson clearly admires Lewis and loves and knows his works. Most of the claims attributed to his biography by other reviewers are not actually made in the book. It seems to me that many people find it hard to accept that Lewis's lifestyle differed from the one accepted among American Evangelicals... Wilson never accuses Lewis of not being politically correct, on the contrary, he points to the times he lived in to make us understand. It's a pity many fans of Lewis will be deterred from reading this book by some of the other reviews here; this is a fair and compassionate biography which helps the reader understand Lewis and his world; above all, however, it is excellently written, and I found it hard to put it down once I had got started.

Wilson, who clearly finds his subject fascinating but refuses to worship him the way some now do, writes a very readable, well-researched and engaging biography that portrays Lewis as a good but complex and even tortured man. This work greatly helped me to understand the driving force behind Lewis's many contributions to literary scholarship, literature, and religion.