The Other Inklings: Interviews with Scholars on C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and Inklings-Adjacent Figures

by G. Connor Salter

Discover the untold story behind the Inklings—and meet the scholars keeping their legacy alive.

You know the C.S. Lewis. Charles Williams. Owen Barfield. George MacDonald. But the story doesn’t end there.

In The Other Inklings, G. Connor Salter takes readers deep into the world of Lewis and his circle—not through conventional biography, but through revealing interviews with the people who have spent their lives studying them. Scholars, poets, theologians, and novelists share what drew them to these writers and how their ideas continue to inspire new generations.

Covering everything from fantasy and theology to ecology, Shakespeare, secret societies, and even William Lindsay Gresham’s crime thriller Nightmare Alley, this book offers an unprecedented glimpse into the lively, eccentric, and sometimes unexpected world of “Inklings-adjacent” figures.

Whether you’re a lifelong fan of the Inklings or just discovering their work, The Other Inklings invites you into the living conversation—a fellowship that spans generations.

Includes interviews Douglas A. Anderson • Owen A. Barfield • Charles Franklyn Beach • Jem Bloomfield • Jonathan Brielle • Michael J. Christensen • Gina Dalfonzo • Matthew Dickerson • David Llewellyn Dodds • Diego Domingo • Diana Pavlac Glyer • Douglas G. Greene • Trevor A. Hart • Stephen Hayes • Sørina Higgins • Crystal Hurd • Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson • Don W. King • Landon Loftin • Catherine Madsen • Joyce McPherson • Paul E. Michelson • Anne-Frédérique Mochel-Caballero • Bill Mullins • Dale J. Nelson • William O’Flaherty • Camilo Peralta • Robert “Bob” Pierce • Clayton Rawson Jr. • Joe Ricke • Zeena Schreck • Clark Sheldon • Rosemary Simmons • Charlie W. Starr • Sarah E. Thomson • Amanda B. Vernon • Alan M. Wald • Sarah Waters • Bret Wood

480 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 11, 2026

About the author

G. Connor Salter was born in North Carolina, lived in Germany for most of his childhood and then moved to Colorado for his teenage years.

So he finds it hard to answer the basic question, "Where are you from?"

More recently, he has written book reviews, essays and other articles for various publications.

Mot notably, he has contributed to Area of Effect magazine, The Waynesdale News and Christian Communicator magazine.

When he isn't writing something he reads, rides a bike, and feeds his currently untreated addiction to classic movies and British comedy.

Reviews

[Brenton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to review this book well. It's a surprisingly fun-to-read and informative collection. I had my doubts, honestly, but it is a unique contribution.

[Zak Schmoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fascinating book. I love reading interviews, so this was right in my wheelhouse Salter is a talented interviewer and asked excellent questions of his subjects. He did a good job selecting subject matter experts who complemented each other. It certainly did not feel like I was reading the same thing over and over again because the interviews fit together to provide a well-rounded picture of several of the Inklings and adjacent figures. I particularly enjoyed the deep dive into Bill Gresham because, like many people, I knew he existed as the first husband of CS Lewis's wife, but I didn't know much about him. This is a lengthy book, but it reads extremely easily and flows very nicely. I highly recommend it.

[Stephen Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have often found that I enjoy reading literary biographies as much as, and sometimes more than I enjoy the works of the authors themselves. Though The Other Inklings is not biographical, but rather a series of interviews with people who have studied the work of the Oxford Inklings, I enjoyed it immensely.

In reading it I came across several names that I was familiar with, either because I had read what they had written in books, journals or blogs, or because I had seen their names in footnotes or bibliographies. I was pleased to learn something about them and how they had encountered and enjoyed books that I too had enjoyed. I also appreciated the way in which G. Connor Salter had added comprehensive references to each of the interviews, making it easy to follow up things I wanted to know more about.

There were, however, a couple of deficiencies (the reason I did not give it five stars). One is that it had no index. Of course in the ebook edition, which I read, it is possible to search for text, but even so it is good to have at least a list of names of persons mentioned in the text. The other deficiency was that there were more than the usual number of typing or spelling errors. I know it is not possible to get rid of such errors completely, and I've often checked something for the fifth time and then spotted a new error as the page comes out of the printer. Some of the errors were in the names of authors or the titles of books and articles.

One thing that I was not expecting was that nearly half the interviews were of scholars of the work of William Lindsay Gresham, the biological father of C.S. Lewis's stepchildren. I'm not complaining; it just came as a bit of a surprise. Gresham was the first husband of Joy Davidman, who later married C.S. Lewis. Gresham therefore does fit the description "Inklings adjacent", and also, I learned, wrote an introduction to one edition of The Greater Trumps by Charles Williams. From those interviews I learned that both Gresham and Davidman were authors in their own right, and had been quite prominent figures in the American Literary Left.

There were some things that I had half-hoped to find, and didn't. This is not a flaw in the book, but just a hint for future research, or perhaps a second volume. Why no interview with Brenton Dickieson, when one of the citations was to a guest post by G. Connor Salter in Dickieson's blog A Pilgrim in Narnia? And I wondered why I seemed to be the only one (yes, I was among the interviewees) who mentioned fantasy authors like Alan Garner or Phil Rickman whose fantasy works seemed comparable with those of the Inklings?

Anyway, many thanks to G. Connor Salter for giving us this book, and I hope there will soon be a second volume, and perhaps a third.