Even though The Magician’s Nephew was written as the sixth book of the Narnia series, the story predates The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Seeing as this served as the prelude to the series, I chose to begin with this. Lewis himself is known to have shown a slight preference to this order of reading, rather than in the order of publication. And the reason to why I have chosen to start reading a children’s book now relates to the arrival of a very tiny human being in the Paul household, exactly a month before Christmas to ensure her stockings and bow wrapped packages hold the ‘popper’(proper) gifts! Also, with the festive season looming, it seemed like a good time to get this one off my BBC Big Read reading list (which I only sometimes remember I am supposed to be completing!)

Now, I am familiar with the story of Narnia and Aslan from the movies, but there is something to be said about reading one that strains beyond that knowledge to inspire the imagination. It is quite simple, and straightforward, but set in early 20th century England, it has a charm of its own. It bought back memories of books that I had read almost two decades ago, of secret passages and simple friendships, of the magic that waterfalls held, and talking animals! But even beyond all these, there is a power in the story, simple as it is, that it has remained ‘young’ and inspired so many years after it was published.

The story follows two children, Polly and Diggory, who get manipulated by Diggory’s uncle to make use of two magical rings that act as portals between worlds. Of the many incidents that result from this, the children meet Aslan and the witch. Here, Lewis explores the creation of Narnia itself. And some conflict between good and evil has been thrown in for good measure.

The book seemed to have been designed as a moral lesson to little children, in addition to being a fantasy story, and with some Biblical references thrown in, I suppose Lewis also wanted this to be a fun way to introduce them to religion. But what I loved best is that it answered many questions that seemed to have been overlooked in The Lion,... For example, why did the witch hate Aslan so much? How did the wardrobe end up being the portal to Narnia? What is the significance of the lamppost? The Magician’s Nephew answers these questions and many more, thus satisfying the vague forgotten questions I had had from the movies. The child in me is happy, and my niece has fallen asleep. It was a good read.