Simon Horobin

Expert in medieval literature Professor Simon Horobin looks at the role Oxford played in the work of C S Lewis and explains how it helps us to understand the author of the Narnia stories as a student, scholar and teacher.

Horobin says the fictional land of Narnia had many connections to the world in which Lewis lived. The influence can be seen in the medieval buildings and in the classical, medieval and Renaissance literature that Lewis read and taught. And he discusses new discoveries in the archives of letters, tutorial reports, personal diaries, margin notes and an unpublished poem. Horobin also looks at Lewis’s involvement in Oxford’s various clubs including the Coalbiters, the Socratic Club and the Inklings.

Horobin is professor of English language and literature at Magdalen College, Oxford, where Lewis also taught, and co-curator of the college exhibition C.S. Lewis: Oxford and Other Worlds.

Presented by Bodleian Libraries