C S Lewis is one of the most well known authors of all time, famed for his worldwide bestseller- “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”. CS Lewis was born in 1898 in Belfast, Ireland and was an author blessed with a vivid imagination, rather like his close friend J.R.R Tolkein.

Without a doubt his most famous works are the Chronicles of Narnia, a series of seven books of which “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” is one. The series is incredibly popular, reportedly having sold over 100 million copies worldwide, written between 1949 and 1954. The chronicles are set in the fictional world of Narnia, a land of good versus evil that features magic as well as talking animals. There are seven books within the chronicles, each giving a segment of the history of Narnia. In the books, Aslan the lion who acts as a leader for the forces of good magically summons children from our world to aid him in the battle of good versus evil, and the books trace the exploits of the children.

The seven books in publication order are:

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magician’s Nephew
The Last Battle

However, the publication order does not reflect the chronological order of Narnia- the chronological order goes as follows:

The Magician’s Nephew
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
The Horse and His Boy
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Last Battle

It does not matter hugely which order you read the books in, but if you are planning to read the Chronicles from start to finish, then chronological order probably makes the most sense.

If you haven’t read the Chronicles, then here is a description of the most famous book in the series, “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe,” to give you a flavour of what the books are like.

“The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” follows the adventures of the four Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. They have been evacuated to a house in the countryside owned by Professor Digory Kirke due to the Blitz. Lucy, the youngest of the four, discovers a portal in a wardrobe that leads her to Narnia, where she meets a faun named Mr Tumnus. However, when she returns, her siblings do not believe her. Later Edmund enters the wardrobe and is befriended by the evil White Witch, yet when he returns he does not verify Lucy’s claims. Eventually all four of them enter Narnia, but Edmund leaves to find the White Witch, who he finds out has turned many of the good creatures of Narnia to stone. Meanwhile the others meat up with Aslan and his army of good, determined to conquer the White Witch and rescue those turned to stone in her castle.

I could describe more of the book, but I really don’t want to spoil it for those who have not yet read it. CS Lewis also wrote other texts, but The Chronicles of Narnia are the best option for younger readers, as many of his other texts deal with areas such as heaven, hell and the fall of man.