Hey, Narnia Fans! Welcome to “Behind the Wardrobe” an Interview Series with Douglas Gresham. Join me as we find out about CS Lewis, Narnia and more in this interview series.
Special thanks to Paul Martin (The Webmaster for NarniaFans) and to Mr. Douglas Gresham himself for this amazing opportunity. And an even bigger thanks to Mr. Gresham for putting up with a few of my impossible questions. Thanks for being such a great sport about it!
For this week: On Jack’s Life, “The Dark Tower”, and other matters.
JS: I read your book,Jack’s Life. I have to admit it was one of the best biographies I’ve read about him.
DG: Thank you.
JS: I felt at times while reading it that I was reading on of Jack’s own stories as it felt a lot like one in terms of how you wrote it. Was that your intention?
DG: Not at all, but it is a very fine compliment and I thank you for it.
JS: I’m assuming you used secondary sources to get the information on his childhood and everything up to the point of his meeting with your mother. What sources did you use?
DG: The Hooper/Green Biography, The George Sayer Biography, and the Companion and Guide by Hooper, but mostly merely to check dates and details for accuracy.
JS: How come no one has yet to make a “good” bio-pic on CS Lewis, meaning a film that accurately portrays his life?
DG: How do you accurately portray 65 years in less than 65 years? But I think that someone sooner or later will attempt to do so and when they do I hope I am still around to help.
JS: I read one of Jack’s short stories ” The Dark Tower”. Are you familiar with it?
DG: Of course.
JS: There is a huge controversy about that story as there is some debate as to whether or not it is a “true” Lewis tale. Do you think it was?
DG: Of course it was. The whole controversy thing was engineered for very personal reasons by a lady who is now dead. Her fanciful theories have been pretty thoroughly discredited.
JS: Do you ever remember him talking about it?
DG: “The Dark Tower”? No, but another of her targets, “The Man Born Blind” (originally working titled “Light”) Jack read to me when I was but a lad.
JS: I have read “A Man Born Blind” as well as the rest of Jack’s short stories and that they would make great made-for-TV movies ( or episodes of a TV show like The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits). Have you ever given much thought into having those adapted from stories to the screen? I know I’d enjoy them!
DG: I haven’t actually thought of that, partly I suppose because I am not exactly short of projects already.
JS: Another one of his short stories that intrigued me as “After Ten Years”, a fragments of a novel about the journey of Menelaus and Helen of Troy. Why didn’t he finish it?
DG: He died first.
JS: Do you think it needs to be?
DG: Not unless Jack comes back to do it.
JS: So, I take it if a currently living author were to approach you asking if they could complete “After Ten Years” or even “The Dark Tower”, you would decline the offer?
DG: Absolutely.
JS: A bit of a trend in Christian fiction is for writers to do a book “in the style” of The Screwtape Letters (meaning a correspondence between a senior devil and a more inexperienced tempter) such as Randy Alcorn’s Lord Foulgrin’s Letters. Are you familiar with that book or any others like it?
DG: I am actually a fan of Randy Alcorn’s work, but I haven’t as yet read that particular one. The Screwtape styled books I have read I have not found to be particularly encouraging.
JS: One book I have in my library is a comic book adaptation of The Screwtape Letters that was put out by Marvel Comics and Thomas Nelson back in 1994 ( they had done similar with Bunyans’ Pilgrim’s Progress and Charles Sheldon’s In His Steps). Did you serve as a consultant for it?
DG: To be honest, I actually don’t remember. 🙂
JS: Is there the possibility Narnia Fans could ever see graphic novels ( or comic books)of all seven Narnian Chronicles and the Space Trilogy? Again, it is something many fans would enjoy. Would you encourage or endorse such a project?
DG: That would depend very much on the quality and standards of the project concerned.
JS: One of my friends wants to try and get his four year old brother into reading by reading him the Narnian Chronicles, however the lack of pictures doesn’t interest his brother. I recommended The World of Narnia series by Deborah Maze ( the four volume series based on TL,TW,TW ) as a good introduction. ( He didn’t want to use the movie story books as he felt then he may as well show him the movie). Are there any other children’s books based on Narnia that you’d recommend as a means of introducing younger readers to the world of Narnia, and thus perhaps get them more interested in reading at a younger age?
DG: He could try The Giant’s Surprise by Hyawin Oram. But the Chronicles themselves would be best read as bedtime stories one chapter at a time when he is a bit older. Four is probably a little too young for them.
JS: I’ve heard that there is a film version of The Screwtape Letters in the works. Is this true?
DG: Yes. I am one of the Producers.
JS: How are they going to adapt it into a film ( if they are in fact > doing this)? The book is largely a collection of letters!
DG: We are working that out right now.
Come back next week when we discuss the Narnia Film project!
