Author CS Lewis will be honoured with a blue plaque at his former Oxford home, described as the gateway to Narnia.

The internationally-acclaimed author is to be commemorated by a plaque at the The Kilns in Risinghurst, where he wrote the Chronicles of Narnia series, which have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide.

The plaque is to be unveiled on Saturday to coincide with a one-week CS Lewis conference in Oxford. It comes a month after the UK cinema release of Prince Caspian - based on his work.

It is hoped the plaque will help tourists identify Lewis's beloved home, where he lived for 33 years, until his death in 1963.

The CS Lewis Foundation, which now owns the bungalow, believes many of the writer's fans could be missing out on visiting their hero's home because the site is not widely known.

Although the house was featured in the 1993 film Shadowlands, about Lewis's life and marriage to American Joy Gresham, it is thought many visitors to Lewis Close do not know which is the former Oxford University fellow's house.

The plaque will be the 40th erected by the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board, which has already honoured the author's friend JRR Tolkein in Northmoor Road.

It was hoped that Richard Attenborough, who directed Shadowlands, would unveil the plaque, but he had to cancel after falling at home and injuring his ribs.

However, dignitaries at the unveiling will include the president of the Californian-based CS Lewis Foundation, Stan Mattson, as well as Walter Hooper, who was the author's secretary.

Mr Hooper, who has edited three volumes of Lewis's letters since his death, said: "This will be a great occasion.

"The Kilns were the mouth of Narnia.

"CS Lewis loved his home, and the grounds were the inspirations for many of the Narnia books.

"It is amazing he is much more popular now than he was in his own lifetime."

Mr Mattson, whose CS Lewis Foundation has more than 3,000 members around the world, said: "It's a great delight to unveil the plaque, which will help mark out CS Lewis's rich legacy for everyone.

"It's being done to help people find The Kilns more easily as visitors, and even locals, don't know where the house is."

Seminar director Kate Simcoe said the foundation was visited by about 1,500 people every year.

She added: "Oxford is CS Lewis's beloved home.

"To many Christians he made God more real.

"We have had grown men come into his home and cry because they have been so touched by the experience of reading his works."

Eda Forbes, secretary of the Oxfordshire Blue Plaque Board, added: "This is one of our most high-profile plaques."