Charles Williams

This is the first full biography of Charles Williams (1886-1945), an extraordinary and controversial figure who was a central member of the Inklings¿the group of Oxford writers that included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Charles Williams¿novelist, poet, theologian, magician and guru¿was the strangest, most multi-talented, and most controversial member of the group. He was a pioneering fantasy writer, who still has a cult following. C.S. Lewis thought his poems on King Arthur and the Holy Grail were among the best poetry of the twentieth century for ''the soaring and gorgeous novelty of their technique, and their profound wisdom''. But Williams was full of contradictions. An influential theologian, Williams was also deeply involved in the occult, experimenting extensively with magic, practising erotically-tinged rituals, and acquiring a following of devoteddisciples. Membership of the Inklings, whom he joined at the outbreak of the Second World War, was only the final phase in a remark