THE inspirational Malvern College schoolmaster who was a close friend of authors J R R Tolkien and C S Lewis is to be honoured with a prestigious annual fellowship award.

George Sayer was head of English at the college from 1949 until 1974 and influenced generations of pupils. Broadcaster Jeremy Paxman, whom Sayer taught in the mid-60s, said he was the best teacher he ever had.

C S Lewis was Sayer’s tutor at Oxford, and they became close friends. Lewis was then mentoring his friend J R R Tolkien as he worked on early drafts of Lord of the Rings, and after Sayer became an English teacher at Malvern, the pair often visited him to walk the hills.

Sayer wrote Jack: C S Lewis and his Times, which was published in 1988 and is widely considered the best account of the author’s life.

During one visit, in a fascinating episode recently confirmed by Sayer’s widow Margaret, Tolkien, disillusioned by the difficulty in finding a publisher for his fantasy novel, apparently contemplated throwing the manuscript on the fire.

Sayer however is said to have praised the power of the writing and persuaded him instead to keep trying to have it published. The story he rescued from the flames eventually became The Hobbit.

The idea for the George Sayer Fellowship originated when the town put up a blue plaque to him at his former home in Malvern Link.

The Fellowship will be launched at Malvern College on Thursday, March 8, with Oxford professor Alister McGrath as its first recipient.

He said: "I’m a great admirer of George Sayer. He’s an important guide to studying Lewis and wrote the outstanding biography of him, because he knew him so well as a person. Sayer explains one of Lewis’s central insights, that a work of literature is written by someone who is not saying ‘Look at me’, but ‘Look at what I see’, in effect, great literature as a window.”

Professor Alister McGrath will present the public lecture, C. S. Lewis and George Sayer: Reflections on their Friendship at Malvern College.

Entry is free and open to everyone, but tickets are needed from bit.ly/GeorgeSayerLecture or 01684 581500.