Initially when CS Lewis turned to writing children’s books, his publisher and some of his friends tried to dissuade him; they thought it would hurt his reputation as writer of serious works. Thankfully, Lewis didn’t listen to any of them and we have today The Chronicles of Narnia.

The Chronicles is a series of seven fantasy novels for children and present the adventures of children who play central roles in the unfolding history of the realm of Narnia, a place where animals talk, magic is common, and good is fighting evil. It is considered a classic of children’s literature and is perhaps the author’s best-known work. More than 95 million copies have been sold in 41 languages.

Written by Lewis between 1950 and 1956, Chronicles contain Christian themes and borrows from Greek and Roman mythology as well as traditional English and Irish fairy tales. The books have been adapted for radio, television, stage and cinema.

Pulp preview:

The Chronicles of Narnia — The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe follows the exploits of the four Pevensie siblings — Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter — in World War II England who enter the world of Narnia through a magical wardrobe while playing a game of ‘hide-and-seek’ in the rural country home of an elderly professor.

Once there, the children discover a charming, peaceful land inhabited by talking beasts, dwarfs, fauns, centaurs and giants that has become a world cursed to eternal winter by the evil White Witch, Jadis. Under the guidance of a noble and mystical ruler, the lion Aslan, the children fight to overcome the White Witch’s powerful hold over Narnia in a spectacular, climactic battle that will free Narnia from Jadis’ icy spell forever.

Green room:

According to Lewis, it “all began with a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood”. As readers of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe well know, that faun was Mr Tumnus, who introduced Lucy Pevensie to Narnia, the enchanted land of talking animals and valiant battles. Since this first Narnia book was published in 1950, countless children have followed the tales of the world that Lucy found behind the wardrobe.

Before Narnia:

As a child, Lewis made up stories about a place he called “Animal-Land”. Like Narnia, noble animals skilled in the art of war inhabited it. A heroic mouse named Peter became an important figure in the tales — Narnia readers will recall that the boy Peter becomes High King of Narnia, and finds a comrade in Reepicheep, a heroic mouse. Sometimes Lewis told his brother these stories as they sat among the coats in their grandfather’s old wardrobe.

The wardrobe:

Like the Pevensie children in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, many London children were sent to live in the country during the air-raids of World War II. In these years, several groups of children stayed with Lewis at his country home. “I never appreciated children,” Lewis wrote years later, “till the war brought them to me.” At this time Lewis began to make notes for the book that became The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. A thought-provoking moment occurred when a little girl who was staying with Lewis asked him what lay behind an old wardrobe he kept upstairs.

Nearly 10 years later, Lucy Pevensie walked through that wardrobe and into Narnia.

The wardrobe is now housed at the Wade Center of Chicago’s Wheaton College, where a sign warns visitors: “Enter at your own risk. The Wade Center assumes no responsibility for persons who disappear or who are lost in this wardrobe.”

Imagining Narnia:

Some believe that the Mourne Mountains in his native Northern Ireland inspired the landscape of Lewis’ Narnia. Draped in purple heather and towering over the sea, these craggy mountains are home to lakes, rivers, forests, and ruined castles.

Narnia was in fact the name of an ancient Roman colony in central Italy, named for the river Nar (now Nera). It has been said Lewis discovered the name in an atlas as a child.

The real Lucy:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is dedicated to Lucy Barfield, Lewis goddaughter. Sadly, about 15 years after the book was published, Lucy was affected by multiple sclerosis, a disease of the nervous system that left her bedridden and unable to feed herself. But being named in the book touched her life in ways its author could not have imagined.

For the rest of her life, Lucy received letters from children. Some, believing she was Lucy Pevensie, asked her about Narnia. Others knew she was ill and just wrote to say “hello”. “What a wonderful oasis of pleasure I have in this pretty terrible world, being recognised as Lucy,” she once said.