The Charles Williams Society

The Celian Moment and other essays.

The Greystones Press (directed by the Society’s own Stephen Barber) will be bringing out a new volume of Charles Williams essays on 6 April, called The Celian Moment and other essays.

These essays have been gathered from books, pamphlets and periodicals all long out of print and none of them has previously been collected. They cover nearly all his literary interests and the final one shows his sympathy for left-wing political ideas arising from his own poverty-ridden childhood. The title essay develops Williams’s theory of poetry but is also a covert homage to the woman who was his second and unacknowledged love.

‘As interest in Charles Williams as critic and poet continues to grow, the publication of these essays is a landmark. They will contribute very significantly to the current positive reassessment of so much of his writing on literary questions, and should be enthusiastically welcomed.’

– Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury and President of the Charles Williams Society.

The essays have been edited and annotated by Stephen Barber, who has written numerous articles on Williams and was Treasurer of the Charles Williams Society for fifteen years.

Greystones is in discussion about publication in the USA, but in the meantime, US readers can order the book from the UK branch of Amazon.