Somebody once said that he is the man for people who want to believe in God but keep finding their intellect getting in the way.
He was a brilliant scholar in his own right (if you are a student of English literature, you can do FAR worse than read his contribution to the Oxford History of English Lit, the volume on the 16th century, or the eye-opening The Discarded Image). But in apologetics he brings a fierce intelligence and persuasive reasoning combined with gentle, conversational English to the table.
And he was an atheist until he was in his twenties . . . and said of his conversion that he was "the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England."
My favorite of his is still The Great Divorce.
I have that around here somewhere. I got to page 80, left the state for a while, and lost it in the house. I’ll look for it tonight.