‘Shadowlands’ (written by William Nicholson, directed by Rachel Kavanaugh), Aldwych Theatre, London
In 1955 CS Lewis followed in the footsteps of many a Christian before him, publishing an outline of his youthful waywardness and subsequent conversion. While the bestseller Surprised by Joy was not dedicated to the woman who would soon disrupt his settled life, friends would later chuckle about its prescience.
Helen ‘Joy’ Davidman was born to Jewish parents in New York City. Aged 12, she announced her newfound atheism to them after reading HG Wells’s Whiggish Outline of History. The precocious girl graduated from high school aged 14, and by 20 she was a published poet with a Master’s degree from Columbia University. Is it any wonder that she garnered a reputation for arrogance and wound up married to a man 17 years her senior?
