C S Lewis was converted to Christianity through the influence of good friends, including J R R Tolkien. The video gives a good short commentary.

Mgr Charles Pope (whose blog for the Archdiocese of Washington is well worth putting on your blogroll and feed reader) has written on the correspondence of Lewis with Rev. Fr. Don Giovanni Calabria. Having had the kind of education now denied to most young people whose families cannot afford private school fees, Lewis was able to write in Latin, thus overcoming the barrier of multiple modern languages. Lewis reflects on the loss of faith in the West and a possible way back.