Stunningly written and gorgeously read.

What a beautiful and fascinating collection of essays, reviews, reactions and opinions, stunningly written and gorgeously read. As a very devoted fan of "The Lord or the Rings," I most enjoyed the texts discussing J.R.R. Tolkien and his work. Highly recommended!

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Beautifully read essays from a master storyteller

This is a fine audiobook. It is read with such clarity that one can almost imagine C.S. Lewis actually reading it. The narrator, the late Ralph Cosham reads with such humanity it brings great peace to the listener.

The topics covered are vast in scope and relevant to this day. I particularly liked the sections on Lewis' respectful and insightful thoughts on the works of Professor J.R.R. Tolkien. Particularly enjoyable are the episodes on the creative writing process.

Finally, this is an audiobook that deserves multiple listenings and will appeal to readers and writers with more than a passing interest in the craft.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

Great Collection of Rare Writings

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

A wonderful collections of Lewis lesser known work on writing and Literature. Everything from Science Fiction to Fairy Tales, and even a transcript of an conversation between Lewis and Martin Amis.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Long time no see

As someone who used to love Lewis's specifically christian works, and as a then christian, have read most/all of them, loss of faith meant loss of Lewis. I was aware of his more secular writing - I had read Out of the Silent Planet as a boy, plus, later, the odd essay and the rest of the sci fi trilogy - but subsequently felt no desire to rediscover him as a writer of and about literature. The world of the unbeliever in general has left Lewis well behind. If you only know The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, moving once, now disgustingly tacky, you will regard him as irrevocably naff. Even the Tolkien connection cannot rescue him.
Now, after several decades, I am happy to look again at this mentor of my impressionable youth, and find him a man who has read, thought and lived widely. Now he has much to tell me about things that matter to me, being at last of more mature years.
This present book (you knew I would get to it eventually) contains some material nostalgically familiar from decades ago, but much that I had not previously read. And it is a joy and a delight.
The narration, although not mimicking either Lewis's actual voice or, impossibly, the voice in one's head when reading the books, hits exactly the required tone and so quickly fades away to leave just the words (indeed the meaning) to permeate the mind.
Please listen to this collection, not for nostalgia for a former favourite author, much less for the defence of a worn out faith - neither of which are greatly in evidence here - but for the application of a clear, sharp mind to a range of subjects, and in particular the world of literature. I find, for example, that he holds exactly the same view that I have formed of the merits of Animal Farm vs 1984. There again, he obstinately praises GK Chesterton, whom I simply despise - could it be that I am wrong?
Further, I have always avoided crime fiction, and therefore have read nothing of Dorothy L Sayers including her other work. His praise (in fact, eulogy) for this lady inspires me to find out what I've been missing.
So there it is. Let Lewis be your guide to a world of ideas previously outside or peripheral to your daily round. And forget about his pursuit of a faded religion. After all, Newton was an alchemist and yet his maths and science can take you to the moon and beyond.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!