Dear Mr. Phillips,
My husband and I recently heard about George MacDonald and have begun reading some of his work. But I have to tell you, I am a bit overwhelmed. There are so many books of so many different types, I hardly know where to begin. I have several friends who read MacDonald, and they all tell me something different. One says I should start with a book called Phantastes because C.S. Lewis loved it. Another tells me that a novel called Sir Gibbie is the best book to begin with, another mentioned a children’s book called At the Back of the North Wind and also said that any of MacDonald’s fairy tales are good.
Our minister often quotes MacDonald’s sermons. My husband is particularly interested in MacDonald’s theology, though he is a great reader of novels as well. We each have different reading tastes though we both like to be challenged in our reading which is what drew us to investigate MacDonald. But honestly, the huge variety makes our heads spin—fairy tales and novels and sermons! They are completely different. Where to begin!
One of our friends told us about you, that you publish MacDonald’s books and have written two biographies about him, and that you knew as much about him as anyone. So we are asking for your help. Would you have time to give us an overview of MacDonald and his writings, and then possibly recommend a few titles to get us going.
Michael Phillips responds to this letter in an expansive answer that spans the width and breadth of the MacDonald world, including:
Michael Phillips has been writing in the Christian marketplace since 1977. He is the author of over a hundred books, and is known as one of the premier novelists of the Christian fiction boom of the 1980s, and as the man responsible for the renaissance of interest in Scotsman George MacDonald. In addition to his own work, he has published eighty titles by and about MacDonald.
