CS Lewis home to receive historic landmark status

|PIC1|The Oxford home where Christian scholar and author CS Lewis wrote the popular The Chronicles of Narnia series is to receive historic landmark status.

Lewis lived at The Kilns from 1930 until his death in 1963. It was there that he wrote many of his works, from The Screwtape Letters to the Narnia series.

The Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board will be unveiling a special blue plaque at The Kilns on Saturday to mark Lewis' contribution to scholarship and literature.

Lewis wrote a total of 40 books in his lifetime but is best known for The Chronicles of Narnia, based on four children who lived with Lewis and his family as evacuees during the Second World War. The first instalment of the series, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, was adapted for the silver screen by Disney in 2005. In May 2008, the second book, Prince Caspian, also hit theatres.

Although his children's fiction books were extremely popular, Lewis was also highly regarded as a Christian apologist. Lewis' books, including Mere Christianity, The Problem of Pain and Miracles, which responded to common objections to Christianity, proved him to be one of the most influential Christian apologists of his time. To date, his books have sold over 100 million copies.

"We have very stringent rules and only award blue plaques for the highest level of achievement," says Eda Forbes, secretary to the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques, which recognises famous residences in Oxford with a permanently-installed plaque.

The Kilns is now a Christian study centre owned by the CS Lewis Foundation in California.

Stan Mattson, founder and president of the CS Lewis Foundation, and Walter Hooper, Lewis' former secretary and literary advisor to his estate, will join in the unveiling of the plaque.

The plaque will be the latest addition to the restored Kilns, that still houses the period wardrobe that inspired the magical portal in Lewis' Narnia story.