Rewriting History

According to Elaine Murray Stone’s article “Revisiting The Kilns” in The Living Church (15 November 1998), she heard Doug Gresham lecture at Oxbridge ’98. “After his mother, Joy, died of cancer, Douglas, then only 10, was raised by Lewis until his death in 1963.” (But when she died he was 14.)

“Today Douglas is 50 years old, gray, balding, medium height, thin and sporting a white mustache and a clipped beard. He dressed in jodhpurs and boots with a turtleneck sweater, sometimes wearing the jacket of the Royal Australian Reserves.” (Yes, this is Doug’s trademark outfit.)

“He has written several books about his tragic childhood, among them Lenten Lands, recently reprinted. Around his neck hung a large silver cross and chain. Because of his Jewish background, he wants to be sure others realize he is a professing Christian.” (Lenten Lands is Doug’s only book except for his co-authored Narnia cookbook for children, which is hardly about his tragic childhood. And he did not have a Jewish background.)

This is Stone’s second article about Lewis in The Living Church; the first (9 January 1994) was obviously based upon the film “Shadowlands.” Some of its errors were corrected in the letters column, but now Stone and her editors have repeated them.