Category: Chronicles of Narnia

When a little girl wrote to CS Lewis asking him for an explanation of the story behind the Chronicles of Narnia, she never expected to get a reply. But the letter Anne Jenkins from Hertfordshire received when she was just 10-years-old is to be displayed in Queen’s University’s new CS Lewis Reading Room. Anne wrote to the Belfast born author in 1961 after being intrigued by a particular passage in The Silver Chair. Recalling that time, Anne said she was fascinated by the books and the mystical world of Narnia. “I just used to scrutinise them quite carefully and it

The young foursome who star in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe know how impassioned the fans of C.S. Lewis‘ classic books are. “I found out the sequel (Prince Caspian) was happening through a teacher,” says Skandar Keynes, 14, who portrays Edmund, one of the four Pevensie siblings in the film, which is new on DVD this week. He jokes, “She had the inside knowledge.” Adds Georgie Henley, 10, who plays Lucy: “My teacher did the same thing to me because she saw it in the newspaper that I said yes (I was going to

An unpublished letter from the novelist C S Lewis has provided conclusive proof of the Christian message in his Narnia children’s books. In the letter, sent to a child fan in 1961, Lewis writes: “The whole Narnian story is about Christ.” It has been found by Walter Hooper, literary adviser to the Lewis estate. It has emerged ahead of this week’s release of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The film, starring Tilda Swinton and Jim Broadbent, cost £75m to make and has been at the centre of a tug of war between Christians and

***** PG CS Lewis‘s classic of children’s fantasy literature, to which six instalments of steeply declining interest and power were added, has now been brought to the screen by Andrew Adamson, of Shrek fame. The result is a triumph. It is gorgeous to look at, superbly cast, wittily directed and funny and exciting by turns. It unfolds the slim book into a rich visual experience that is bold and spectacular and sweeping, while retaining its human intimacies. I can’t see how it could be done better. Perhaps Mel Gibson would have preferred Aslan to be whipped with barbed wire for

CS Lewis’s magical children’s classic is about to light up the big screen, but behind the fantasy lies a real-life tale of loss, quest and salvation. Boyd Tonkin looks at the writer’s personal journey Let’s clear up one popular misconception at the start. It was not CS Lewis who, at one of the regular readings of new work in the ale-and-pipe tobacco fug of the Eagle and Child pub in wartime Oxford, groaned in response to the arrival of yet another of JRR Tolkien‘s mythic sprites: “Oh no; another fucking elf.” That was their mutual friend Hugo Dyson, professor of

As the UK prepares for a CS Lewis movie blockbuster this Christmas, a row has broken out about its Christian message To millions The Chronicles of Narnia are a childhood tale of wonder and triumph now made into a film that could inspire millions of children to read. To others, including the celebrated fantasy author Philip Pullman, they are stories of racism and thinly veiled religious propaganda that will corrupt children rather than inspiring them. Either way, one thing is certain: this Christmas, and perhaps the next six, depending on sequels, everyone will be talking about Narnia. Disney is already

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 11 – With two months to go before the release of its big-budget film “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” the Walt Disney company wants very much to whet audience appetites by placing music from the soundtrack on radio and music-video channels. But Disney’s tricky marketing strategy for “Narnia” – which includes aggressively courting Christian fans who can relate to the story’s biblical allegory while trying not to disaffect secular fans – is particularly tricky when it comes to music. The spiritual character of “Narnia” is being reinforced with the debut on