I’ve always been a fan of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. When I was younger, I loved The Chronicles of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters. While I knew little about the other members of the famed mid-twentieth century Oxford-based group, the Inklings, I loved the idea of their gatherings.

I’ve read enough biographies to know that no one is perfect. Even the very good-hearted and sincere make a lot of mistakes, and they often aren’t treated well. In the case of the Inklings, they didn’t have the easy, fun-filled lives I imagined drinking beer and tramping through beautiful English landscapes while discussing their ideas for fantasy. Okay, they did do those things, but it turns out it wasn’t easy and was often anything but fun-filled for each of them.

That the members were numerous and in flux and that they excluded women (even those they respected and liked) was surprising. While I enjoyed getting to know each of them, it was like getting to know anyone. I quickly discovered things that disappointed me.

While I liked the young Tolkien, the young C.S. Lewis made me nervous. They seemed to cross psychological paths in late life, with Tolkien becoming more ornery and Lewis more relaxed. Owen Barfield and Charles Williams were complete surprises to me. I found both more interesting individuals than either Tolkien or Lewis.

That Christianity and writing were the glue that tied them all together also surprised me somewhat. I had been under the impression that they were a group of co-workers who liked one another. Living as I do, in the 21st century, it surprised me that religion was so frowned upon in academic circles that far back. And this is why I read: to learn.

Philip and Carol Zaleski certainly did their research. The book itself was long. At times, the detail about all the members’ thoughts and writing was a bit too dense for me. I’m not a language nor literature scholar, and some of the philosophy and theology were over my head. Still, I enjoyed learning more about what went into creating some of my favorite novels. As a result of reading this book, I plan to explore the works of Barfield and Williams. ( )

Very detailed accounts of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams. Tolkien and Lewis are the only ones I was familiar with. I learned a lot about their childhood, family and lives. Religion played a huge part in their lives. ( )

Thei book should be titled "Lewis, Tolkien and Friends", because I would be reasonably sure no-one is going to buy it to read about Owen Barfield and Charles Williams. There's actaully little in it about the Inklings as a group (their first meeting at the Bird & Baby is not even mentioned), its really a dual biography of Lewis and Tolkien, alternating chapters concerning their lives and their developing philosophies. Oddly, though I much prefer LOTR to Narnia, I find Lewis much more interesting to read about. That is primarily because Tolkien was boringly bourgeois in his private life, whereas Lewis was charmingly unconventional. To tell the truth I would like to have seen more about Lewis' private life, but this book is very much a discussion of their writing and especially their philosophy. As a non-Christian I found the endless spiritual meandering quite tedious, but it really sparkles when describing the processes that led to their best-known works. I was fascinated to see how Tolkien struggled with the conception of LOTR and the many changes he made to his original script. All in all I enjoyed about half this book, there were a lot of dry patches, but the good bits were fascinated. I would not recommend this to anyone who is not fascinated by Tolkien or Lewis, but if the reader is prepared to work hard to extract the jewels in this book it is a great read. ( )

This may well have been the most disappointing book I have read this year. As a keen reader of Tolkien’s academic works, as well as his chronicles of Middle Earth, I was looking forward to some fascinating insights into his philological studies, and his researches into the various tributaries of north Germanic medieval literature. Similarly, I was keen to learn more about C S Lewis, and in particular his medieval researches. After all, his critical analysis, The Allegory of Love, is itself now a classic of the genre.

Sadly, this book fell lamentably short of the detailed analysis promised in the hyperbolic encomia strewn about the cover. The Zaleskis seem to delight in using as many words as possible to say very little, and I found it all very weak and pointless. ( )

Excellent in-depth look at the core members of the Inklings. I was previously only well acquainted with Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, so this was a refreshing broadening glimpse of a group of literary giants I had ojy been aware of in passing. Although fascinating for the most part, one needs to be pretty thoroughly steeped in Western, and especially English, literature and philosophy to get the most from this book. It would also help to have a background in Old and Middle English, as well as Latin. Still, a lot to enjoy if you enjoy the works of these authors, especially Tolkien and Lewis. Some parts stray into fairly esoteric territory, but most of the time the authors stay on common ground. ( )