Simon Barrington-Ward was Chaplain at Magdalene College, University of Cambridge, during the last half of the 1950’s while C. S. Lewis was a professor there. He went on to be the Bishop of Coventry, and is now retired.
He spoke about getting to know Lewis, his first impressions of Lewis as “a farmer in a pub,” and the intelligence of Lewis that was particularly intimidating. Afterall, Lewis was very well read, hence being a professor at both Oxford and Cambridge during his life.
For more info: An audio of the talk can be downloaded from the Centre’s Resource page, or by using this direct link: Session 2: C.S Lewis – Simon Barrington Ward.
Thanks to Mark Sommer for the link.
Mark and Paul…thanks guys. I enjoy hearing all the history I can about Lewis…He WAS an extraordinary man, author and one that, I believed, lived up to his calling. He was an asset to the literary community as well as to his fellow man.
Credit also needs to be given to Andrew Townsend, who is currently writing about The Hobbit for Hollywood Jesus. He also did some pieces on the seven Narnia books during the months before Prince Caspian was released. Andrew learned Barrington-Ward had spoken at the Centre while he was visiting London, and passed the information on to me.
I also just realized that Barrington-Ward did the Foreword for the Zondervan book “C. S. Lewis Remembered,” which I highly recommend. You can find my review of the book here: http://www.examiner.com/x-17507-Hobbits-Narnia–Spirituality-Examiner~y2009m10d18-Remembering-C-S-Lewis
Awesome, thanks for that, Mark!
Wow… Amazing, C.S. Lewis was an amazing person.
Thanks for this post. My husband and I listened to the talk 2 times back-to-back it was so good. The references to The Last Battle and the quote about night falling on the world were simply delicious. 🙂