Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast on 29 November 1898. He taught English literature at Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1954 and at Magdalene College, Cambridge, from 1954 until his death on 22 November 1963. A close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien, he was part of the informal Oxford literary group known as the Inklings.
He is best known for The Chronicles of Narnia, and also for The Screwtape Letters and his non-fiction Christian writing, such as Mere Christianity. He lost his faith as a teenager and returned to Anglicanism at 32, and his wartime radio talks on Christianity brought him wide acclaim. He wrote more than 30 books, translated into over 30 languages.