Highlights for August 22nd – 31st include: An unfortunate childhood loss, letters from Screwtape on gluttony and love, and the radio broadcast of the last chapter of what’s now book one of Mere Christianity.

As mentioned during a previous column last month, Lewis lost his wife to cancer. The second most significant loss for him was during his childhood, when his mother, Florence Augusta Hamilton Lewis, died on the 23rd in 1908. This was also due to cancer. Although Lewis had prayed for his mother to live, he reports not actually being a Christian at the time