Imagine sitting down with Narnia creator C. S. Lewis for a cuppa. What would he talk about and what made him tick?

One of his biographers, Professor of Science and Religion at Oxford, Alister McGrath, imagines this scenario in his book, subtitled How Reading C.S Lewis Can Change Your Life.

He suggests eight topics — including the meaning of life, the importance of stories, apologetics, suffering and the hope of heaven.

Lewis is best known for his children’s books about the imaginary kingdom of Narnia, but he was also an Oxford don and wrote popular books on theology. McGrath uses Lewis’s books, letters and information about the writer’s life to put across how Lewis thought and what he would have to say on the issues.

It is a deeply Christian but accessible book that gently explains Lewis’s points of view; many parts are profound and the pages are crammed full of Lewis’s gems of wisdom.

Caroline Firth