In The News

Westminster Abbey honour announced for writer C S Lewis

Westminster Abbey honour announced for writer C S Lewis

THE Belfast-born writer and scholar C. S. Lewis is to have a memorial stone placed in Westminster Abbey in London.

The stone will be placed at Poets’ Corner and a Service will be held on November 22 next year [2013] to mark the 50th. anniversary of his death. He passed away on the same day that President Kennedy was assassinated.

The memorial will mean that his name will be added to those of the many poets and writers, including John Milton, Oliver Goldsmith and William Blake, who have already been honoured in Poets’ Corner.

Clive Staples Lewis was an Oxford Don, who as well as being a writer was also a noted academic, whose Christian faith had a profound effect on his work. 

He is best remembered for writing the series of books, The Chronicles of Narnia, which have been translated into more than 30 languages and have sold millions of copies around the world.

During the Second World War, he delivered a series of radio broadcasts on the subject of Christianity (see below) which were widely acclaimed.

Announcing the decision to grant Mr. Lewis a memorial stone, the Canon of Westminster Abbey, Vernon White said the writer “was able to convey the Christian faith in a way that made it both credible and attractive to a wide range of people”.

To listen to an excerpt from one of C. S. Lewis’s wartime broadcasts, click here.

For information on the C. S. Lewis Foundation, click here.

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