This sounds very interesting, although I'm not sure if the philosophical sections narrated by "a jaunty lion and a genteel wizard" would be quite to my taste — well, there's only one way to find out...

I'd much prefer to have a look through the book first before deciding whether or not to buy it, but unfortunately Amazon isn't allowing that option digitally and I can't see whether the physical book is available to buy (yet) in UK bookshops. I will keep looking and will also be interested to hear what any other NarniaWebbers think of it, if others here get the chance to read it.

I've read several other reviews and it does sound pretty promising overall, especially in bringing out the point that if Tolkien and Lewis hadn't met and befriended each other, it's quite likely that neither of them would have written their best-known works that have had such a huge impact on the whole genre of fantasy and popular culture in general. I'll definitely keep an eye out for it — thanks for letting us know about it, @icarus. 

@courtenay It's great when you can check books out at the library before deciding to buy them but sometimes it takes so long for the libraries to get the books. (I'm not as angry as that smiley makes me seem. I'm just writing about something for which I struggle to have patience.)

I've still yet to spot this book in any actual bookshops (though I must admit I haven't been looking all that hard,), however I did notice he has some rather nice prints from the book available on his website, which I think are actually quite nice as standalone items in their own right.

https://www.johnhendrix.com/prints/jack-and-tollers-in-oxford

https://www.johnhendrix.com/prints/the-inklings-at-eagle-child

Posted by: @icarus

I've still yet to spot this book in any actual bookshops (though I must admit I haven't been looking all that hard,)

I haven't seen it either (and likewise haven't really been looking), but I just did a search online and it's coming up on Waterstones' website, so it's definitely available over here. (The main general interest bookshop chain in the UK, for anyone not familiar with it — probably the equivalent of Barnes & Noble in the US, or Dymocks in Australia.)

Annoyingly though, when I give my location on the website, it's not available at any of their stores near me, including my local one that is literally less than one minute's walk from my home. As it's a book I'm interested in but not game to buy until I've leafed through it myself and seen what I think of it, I will just have to keep looking!

Interestingly, it is showing online as available in store now at Blackwell's, the absolutely huge, carrying-every-kind-of-book-you-can-think-of-and-then-some bookshop in central Oxford. Well, they always do have plenty of Lewis- and Tolkien-related titles, for fairly obvious reasons. I would love an excuse to go there again (I had a brief visit to Oxford a few months ago, just before The Mythmakers was released, or else I'd have been looking out for it), but unfortunately this book on its own doesn't quite justify the time and effort and expense of the journey!! So I will just have to keep looking for it closer to home.

If you (Icarus) or any others here do find it and read it, I'd be very interested to hear what other NarniaWebbers think of it. 

Apologies for not posting something sooner - I preordered The Mythmakers as I'm a fan of John Hendrix and especially of his previous illustrated biography on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Faithful Spy.

The Mythmakers is a fantastic book! From a NarniaWeb perspective there isn’t a huge focus on Narnia, as the book covers the whole of both Lewis and Tolkien’s lives. However it is very much about story and how that shaped their lives and books. It’s part-book, part-comic, with a bit of choose-your-own-adventure thrown in. Hendrix’s illustrations are gorgeous as always.

For those intimately familiar with the history of Lewis and Tolkien there isn't going to be much, or anything, new. But what's special about this book is that it weaves in the history of storytelling and myth. If you're a bit of a scholar on Lewis and Tolkien and don't like illustrations in any form, then this isn't the book for you. For me, the book wasn't as dramatically revealing or exciting as his previous one simply because I know a lot about Lewis, Tolkien, their work, and storytelling. However, it's beautifully told. What this book does that others do not (as far as I'm aware) is look at that fellowship between Lewis and Tolkien and how their shared history of stories brought these books we love so dearly forth. The closest book I've read, which focuses solely on the time of the Inklings, is Bandersnatch by Diana Pavlac. I found it fascinating from an artist's community perspective as it focused on how the Inklings operated. It's mentioned in the bibliography of The Mythmakers, and John Hendrix has done an excellent job of taking that communal creativity theme and showing why they wrote what they did.

I was a little wary of the Lion and Wizard as narrators (particularly as they were authored by an American) but I liked them very much. I thought it was sensitively done.

However. The fact this book was written and illustrated by an American does mean I have these (fairly minor) quibbles: there’s a glossary of Britishisms at the back, including ‘Great Scott!’ – which surely people know through Back to the Future, if nothing else? Anyway that got an eye roll from me. There was also a very British raccoon for some reason, when raccoons are a wholly North American animal. It reminded me of the live action 101 Dalmatians film, which makes the same mistake and has a bunch of raccoons running around the English countryside. For future reference, should authors/filmmakers/illustrators want a wild animal that roots around in rubbish bins but is 100% British - choose a fox. Foxes are our equivalent of raccoons.

Despite this, I loved it. I'll definitely return to it - I'm sure there are many little details I missed on my first read through. It's a beautiful book, perfect for anyone who is very new to Tolkien or Lewis but with lots there for anyone already familiar with them.

I've taken some photos of my copy:

An example of a story page

An example of a comic page

One of the sections on story

@ajaiken thats incredibly interesting - thanks for the review! 😁 Though you've got me all intrigued about Dietrich Bonhoeffer now... I may have to look into that! 🤔 

@ajaiken Thanks so much for the review, AJ — very interesting and encouraging! I'm glad to hear from a NarniaWebber that the book is worth reading.

One thing — your photos aren't showing for me, whether I open this webpage on my laptop or on my phone. Is anyone else having that issue, and is there any way to fix it?

That grates with me too about the "Britishisms" explanations and the raccoons, but I guess it could have been worse. I will definitely keep looking out for a copy myself!

I never thought I'd read the phrase "very British raccoon."

Posted by: @courtenay

One thing — your photos aren't showing for me, whether I open this webpage on my laptop or on my phone. Is anyone else having that issue, and is there any way to fix it?

I think we need a Dropbox account . I used to have one at work before I retired, but not now.

Hmm, Dropbox probably isn't the best image hosting site I guess ... how does everyone else post images? And is anyone able to see them (or just me)?

Here's a link to a folder with the originals - this should work whether you have a Dropbox account or not!