S9E9: “Wardrobes and Rings”, After Hours with Dr. Julia Golding

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Though we’re in the Christmas season, Lent is just around the corner. Dr. Julia Golding joins to help prepare us with her co-authored new devotional Wardrobes and Rings: Through Lenten Lands with the Inklings.

Click here to download audio for S9E9: “Wardrobes and Rings”, After Hours with Dr. Julia Golding

Show Notes

Introduction

Welcome friends to Pints With Jack! We’re recording this episode at the start of Advent and it’ll be released at the beginning of the (actual) Christmas season, but today on Pints With Jack we’re already looking forward to Lent, the season of preparation before Easter… this is because today David is talking to Julia Golding, one of the authors of “Wardrobes and Rings: Through Lenten Lands with the Inklings”.

Quote-of-the-Week

This 40-day book of readings (plus Sundays) picks on themes that emerge from their work, particularly that of Tolkien and Lewis. Arranged in weekly themes to suit the Lenten season, we go from temptation to the cross, via nature, time, creation, conversion and the importance of story. Using the springboard of the Inklings, we include a reflection and a Bible reading to prompt further thought. We believe Wardrobes and Rings will have something to say to Christians as well as those who wouldn’t give themselves that label. All are welcome aboard to find out what that might be.

Dr. Julia Golding, Wardrobes and Rings

Biography

Julia Golding is a multi-award-winning novelist, writing for adults, young adults and children. Over a million of her books have been published around the world in over 20 languages.

She began her career with “The Diamond of Drury Lane”, which won the Nestlé (Smarties) Gold Award and the Waterstones­ Children’s Book of the Year. She has most recently written a series for children called Jane Austen Investigates (SPCK/Lion) an adult Regency puzzle thriller series for HarperCollins, beginning with “The Persephone Code”. 

She is also director of the Oxford Centre for Fantasy, a small educational charity established to honour the life, work and faith of the Inklings which has a large online following, particularly on her podcast Mythmakers.

Chit Chat

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Toast

  • Dr. Golding was sipping a peppermint tea out of a “Maugrim Mug”
  • David had a Yorkshire Gold tea.

Discussion

01. “Background”

Q. Would you mind filling in some details from your biography, please? Tell us a little bit about your career as a writer?

  • While completing her English Literature degree at Cambridge University, Dr. Golding chose to write her dissertation on J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, whom she had great affection for.
  • Wanting to avoid a career in an ivory tower, she began a career in the civil service and foreign affairs. During this time, she was married, moved, then paused her career to start her family. She decided to go back to school for another literary degree in English Romanticism, but then recommitted to foreign affairs and development. This track gave her insight into different cultures and perspectives.
  • After the birth of her third, Dr. Golding decided to find her own voice through authoring her own book through Oxford University Press. This was the start of her writing career, a vocation she’s been pursuing for 20 years. She often weaves her international experiences throughout her fictional works.

Q. Where did your interest in the Inklings come in?

  • Dr. Golding’s encounter with the Inklings happened during the hot summer of 1987. A neighbor girl who lived next door told her through the separating fence about the fantasy book she was reading, which had a white witch, talking animals, a magical winter landscape, a secret portal between worlds, and a marvelous lion… needless to say, the pitch worked, and Dr. Golding begged her parents for a set, which she still owns today.
  • As she grew older, she ran across Tolkien (unaware of his friendship with Lewis), and started with reading “The Fellowship of the Ring”. She loved their works because she could tell that they were both Christian writers; it was a clear thread throughout their stories.

Q. Can you tell us about Project Northmoor and your podcast, Mythmakers?

  • During Covid times, Dr. Golding lived in the heart of Oxford, very close to J. R. R. Tolkien’s home. One day, as she was cycling through the neighborhood, she noticed that the house was up for sale. With a strong feeling that this home should be preserved as a historical site for the public, she attempted to crowdfund to buy it. Unfortunately, despite all of her efforts, she was unable to raise enough money in time. However, she and her friends decided instead to use the money to set up a literary center dedicated to the Inklings, where post-grads in immersive writing courses can come stay for the year.
  • Thanks to the help of some older friends who offered part of their home for her project, Project Northmoor is now in its third year, with each room of the home dedicated according to the “culture” of different stories.
  • On their website, Project Northmoor features workshops on literature and myth-making, and holds discussions for fans of the authors, primarily Tolkien. They also review when major fantasy events start making cultural waves, such as The Rings of Power, or the new full cast “Harry Potter” audiobooks.

02. “Introducing Narnia”

Q. Before we turn to your book, last season I had an episode with two other podcasters who are, like me, fairly new fathers. We spoke about introducing Narnia to our children… You wrote in with some thoughts…

  • There’s no need to rush when it comes to Narnia! Young children have a harder time distinguishing between fantasy and reality. With maturity comes the ability to appreciate allegory in fictional settings. So, Dr. Golding argues that if you want your children to really appreciate Lewis, you should start it when they’re old enough to understand those things.
  • David described his experience reading Narnia to his son Alexander. He was enthralled by the Pauline Baynes drawings in them. David’s discovered that not every Chronicle captivates his young audience the same way. LWW was a much bigger hit than PC, and so far that’s as far as they’ve gone together in the series.

03. “Genesis”

Q. So, turning to Wardrobes and Rings, how do you know Simon Horobin and Malcolm Guite, and how did you come to write a book together?

  • Simon Horobin and Dr. Golding went to the same church together for years, which was on the same street as Tolkien’s home. Fr. Malcolm Guite was a chaplain at Girton College Cambridge, where Dr. Golding went to school.
  • During Lent one year, her priest mentioned that she and Simon should work on a Lenten Inklings project together because they were both academics, and Simon now holds the same position that Lewis did when he worked at Oxford.
  • Last year, wanting to spread some good in the world, Dr. Golding reached out to Simon about doing another project together. Thanks to a pre-negotiated contract with Canterbury press, they decided to tag-team a Lent book along with Fr. Malcolm, based on the course they had already done.

Q. Are there any devotional books in your life that have made a big impact for you?

  • Because of her fondness for poetic literature, “Haphazard by Starlight” by Janet Morley made a mark on Dr. Golding’s Advent preparation. The poem the devotional is named for is about the Magi journeying towards Bethlehem.
  • She was also struck by “The Mind of the Maker” by Dorothy L. Sayers for the way that it frames creativity as an infinite resource.

Q. Is there an age that you’d recommend for your book?

  • You can give “Wardrobes and Rings” to younger teens. It’s filled with Dr. Golding’s life experiences, and it’s accessible for anyone who’s seen the film adaptations of the authors’s works.

04. “Structure”

Q. Could you describe how the book is structured?

  • The book is more or less structured according to the liturgical year, focusing on a theme, giving an example from either Lewis or Tolkien, and then offering a Scripture passage for reflection. Here are the overarching themes of the book:
    • Resisting temptation, and nature/science
    • Time and using it wisely
    • Creation and sub-creation
    • Conversion
    • The importance of story
    • Holy Week
  • They will soon be releasing an audiobook version.

05. “The Future”

Q. Are there any plans to do any more books like this, such as one for Advent?

  • Presently, there are no plans for another project. However, if readers like the devotional and want to explore more of the three authors’s works, Malcolm Guite will be releasing a work on Arthurian poems soon.

06. “Adapting Narnia”

Q. This season ends in June which means we’ll be starting Season 10 (and That Hideous Strength) in the run-up to the release of the first Netflix Narnia adaptation. On your podcast Mythmakers, you’ve spoken quite a bit about adaptation, so I wanted to pick your brain about the upcoming Netflix offering… what are your thoughts?

  • Dr. Golding and David are very happy that they’re beginning with “The Magician’s Nephew” instead of LWW, because LWW has been done so many times. The audience needs something fresh, and it can’t peter out after the first one like the other adaptations have done.
  • That being said, the new series is jumping forward in time, which means that the period feel will be lost, and it’ll be a bit disconnected from Jack’s own life. Regardless, it’ll be an interesting ride!
  • It seems like director Greta Gerwig didn’t want future movies to be comparable to the films which have already been made. It’s hard to top the 2005 Walden Media version.

Q. Do you think that this new series will incorporate more of the Witch’s perspective? Also, do you think the overarching framework for the new series has been set?

  • Dr. Golding believes that the framework has already been clearly laid out by Lewis, with the Chronicles taking readers from Creation to the end of time. The Narnian world is the framework, and the overarching character is Aslan, not the Witch.
  • Into the Wardrobe wrote a wonderful two-part treatise on Jadis on his channel.
  • One of the reasons that Narnia is hard to get right is because not all of the books have the same “connective tissue” between them, as opposed to something like “Harry Potter”. David interviewed Reformed Mythologist lays this out in a video provocatively titled “Narnia is a TERRIBLE franchise”.
  • It looks like the release of the first installment will be around #CSLewisReadingDay! We might have something special in the works for that event. Stay tuned…

Wrap Up

Concluding Thoughts

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David

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After working as a Software Engineer in England for several years, David moved to the United States in 2008, where he settled in San Diego. Then, in 2020 he married his wife, Marie, and moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin. Together they have a son, Alexander, who is adamant that Narnia should be read publication order.