Book excerpt: What if you could ask C. S. Lewis his thoughts on the questions we all ask ourselves from time to time - questions about friendship, education, suffering, God ... and the meaning of life itself? Alister McGrath's provocative and perceptive book Deep Magic, Dragons and Talking Mice takes Lewis as the perfect conversation companion for the persistent meaning-of-life questions everyone asks. Lewis travelled from staunch atheism to reluctant belief, from rational scepticism to the appreciation of human desires and imagination, and from Christian apologist during the Second World War to celebrated author of classic children's literature - and as such looked at life's mysteries from many different viewpoints. The questions Lewis thought so deeply about are still relevant today, and all are illuminated by his astonishingly varied body of work. Whether you're new to Lewis, a fan of the Narnia books or a devotee of his apologetic writings, McGrath will lead you into an exploration of life's deepest questions, using one of the twentieth century's most engaging writers as our guide.