C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and their friends were a regular feature of the Oxford scenery in the years during and after the Second World War. They drank beer on Tuesdays at the Bird and Baby, and on Thursday nights they met in Lewiss Magdalen College rooms to read aloud from the books they were writing; jokingly they called themselves 'The Inklings'. C.S.Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien first introduced 'The Screwtape Letters' and 'The Lord of the Rings 'to an audience in this company and Charles Williams, poet and writer of supernatural thrillers, was another prominent member of the group. Humphrey Carpenter, who wrote the acclaimed biography of J.R.R. Tolkien, draws upon unpublished letters and diaries, to which he was given special access, in his engrossing story.

A constantly enjoyable volume

JOHN CAREY, 'Sunday Times'

A triumph of skill and tact ... not one dull or slack sentence

KINGSLEY AMIS, 'New Statesman'

It must be technically very difficult to write a biography of more than one person at a time: it is still more difficult to capture the atmosphere of a group ... Mr Carpenter has managed both things admirably

MARY WARNOCK, 'Sunday Telegraph'