C S Lewis
In 1997, THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE was voted the most influential book of the twentieth century by teachers, librarians and parents in the UK. The last six US Presidents have all claimed C. S. Lewis to be one of their favourite writers (as have Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair). He was an acclaimed academic, a renowned Christian thinker and apologist, the author of dozens of non-fiction books and a founder member of The Inklings (with J.R.R. Tolkien). Lewis fought in the First World War trenches and became a famous broadcaster known as 'the apostle to sceptics' during World War II: his newspaper articles and radio programmes were well known.
He led what was considered by many of his contemporaries to be a rather bohemian life in Oxford, living with a much older woman, a widow named Janie Moore. Late in life he married an American divorcee who (as documented in the movie SHADOWLANDS) died tragically of cancer four years into their marriage.
Michael White's biography is an accessible yet erudite study of a subject who has immense and lasting international appeal.