C S Lewis

[Bazile]

16 October 1950 was the day on which The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe , one of the great children's novels was first published.

The first of C S Lewis's , The Chronicles Of Narnia

When it came out it was a very muted response apparently , but has gone on to be made into films and TV programmes .

It has sold over 100 million copies

I read it at school

Have you read it or any of the others in the chronicles ?

I also read the 'Voyage Of
The Dawn Treader '
The illustration of the 'Beast ' scared the living daylights out of me , as a child

[JimF]

"The first of C S Lewis's , The Chronicles Of Narnia"

The first to be published, certainly, but not the first chronologically.

[Bazile]

Or was the ' beast' in the book - 'the last battle '

It's been a long time since my school days

[campbellking]

Borrowed them all from the library many times as a youngster and read them over and over again

[JimF]

I always found it strange that "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" gets such amazing plaudits. For me, it's by some distance the weakest in the series. Not a patch on Dawn Treader or Silver Chair.

[tonyav]

Yep, I can remember reading The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe while I was in junior school. I loved it.

[emmie]

have watched the films, but not read the books,
having trouble just getting through my second reading of game of thrones, put it down because my eyes were going, and haven't picked it up lately.

[barry1010]

I regularly reread old childhood favourites, it is a simple pleasure. I sometimes share with the grandchildren.

[Old_Geezer]

The teacher read to us at primary school. At the time we weren't aware it was supposed to be some kind of Christian tale. Just a good old child pleasing fantasy yarn.

[Bazile]

So , is it the 'last battle' that the 'beast/creature ' is in ?

[Mozz71]

OG is spot on. The glory of the Narnia books is that the Christian imagery, while obvious as an adult, is completely irrelevant to a child. It's all about fantasy and adventure.

[Ken4155]

I remember reading and being totally enthralled by The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe as a young kid. Up until then, i had existed mainly on a diet of Famous Five, Secret Seven and Just William - all great children's books- but CS Lewis opened the door to a whole new genre for me. One which has lasted a lifetime. Hence my (still-growing) collection of books by Stephen King.

[woofgang]

I read them all around aged 8...then like JRR Tolkien I learned to recognise and dislike allegory.

[ummmm]

I read them to my kids as their night time story.

[tiggerblue10]

I haven't read any of these books or seen any of the films. Are they available to watch anywhere?

When I was young I read all the LOTR trilogy and The Hobbit. I watched Return of The King last weekend as well. Seen it so many times now but still love it.

[woofgang]

tiggs here's the imbd list but honestly I wouldn't bother. https://www.imdb.com/list/ls046093370/

the books are definitely for children and of their time

[retrocop]

I thought the best childrens books when I was young were all the 'Adventure' series by Enid Blyton. The Valley,Castle,Island,Sea of Adventure etc. I also enjoyed Jennings and Derbyshire and of course the Biggles series.

[bunkmoreland]

I read all of the above favourites mostly and one that is hardly mentioned now is Billy Bunter. Completely un pc now for various reasons,but the actual writing was very comical in a descriptive way. I've read a lot of John Grisham and he has the ability to make you laugh hard one minute and shake your head in sadness the next. Excellent descriptive writing.

[jno]

Billy Bunter was written by a very busy author indeed, even more so than Enid Blyton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Hamilton_(writer)