Clive Staples Lewis was an Irish-born British novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist. He is best known as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, and his other works of fiction such as The Screwtape Letters and The Space Trilogy, along with non-fiction Christian apologetics including Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.

Lewis held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalene College, Cambridge (1954–1963). He was a close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings. Both served on the English faculty at the University of Oxford and were active in the informal Oxford literary group known as the Inklings.

According to Lewis's 1955 memoir Surprised by Joy, he was baptized in the Church of Ireland but fell away from his faith during adolescence. He returned to Anglicanism at the age of 32 due to the influence of Tolkien and other friends, becoming an "ordinary layman of the Church of England". Lewis's faith profoundly affected his work, and his wartime radio broadcasts on Christianity brought him wide acclaim.

In 1956, Lewis married the American writer Joy Davidman; she died of cancer four years later. Lewis passed away on 22 November 1963, from kidney failure. In 2013, on the 50th anniversary of his death, Lewis was honoured with a memorial in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.