Julia Golding, Malcolm Guite, Simon Horobin, Wardrobes and Rings: Through Lenten Lands with the Inklings (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2025). (Amazon)
Drawing on the work of some of the Inklings’ most well-known members, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as friends of the Inklings such as Dorothy Sayers and T.S. Eliot, Wardrobes and Rings explores through their eyes a faith which is tinged with seriousness, creativity and joy. This devotional draws on their writings – fiction, poetry, and essays – offering daily readings and reflections that illuminate the path to the cross and resurrection. Weekly themes such as temptation, time, nature and creativity guide the way. Written by Julia Golding, Malcolm Guite and Simon Horobin: a novelist, a poet-priest, and an Oxford professor all deeply immersed in the Inklings’ world and wisdom, Wardrobes and Rings invites you to rediscover Lent through the lens of imagination-infused faith.
This is not your average book about the Inklings. Rather, I know I will find it worth turning to again and again. Nor is it your average Lenten devotional. I will want to reach for it throughout the year.
Candace and I have added it to our morning prayer, reading one daily meditation after the psalm. The short format prompts each writer to distill their thoughts into free flowing, conversational prose, packed with insight and hope appropriate to the transfigurations of Lent, as we turn from winter into spring, waiting for Easter.
Links:
- Listen to Julia Golding and Malcolm Guite discuss the book with Jim Beitler and Aaron Hill on a recent episode of The Wade Center Podcast.
- An audio book is available in which each daily meditation is read by the author who wrote it.
- Morning prayer, with an intro to the church year.
- Poetry for Christmas and Easter.
