The Enid Blyton Society

Courtenay wrote:To hark back to an earlier topic for a moment, I remember mentioning I'd bought the pattern for a cross stitch design of Lucy meeting Mr Tumnus. As of a few weeks ago, I've finally started work on it! Very much enjoying it, too.

Ah yes - I remember you mentioning that! It would be great to see a photo of it when it's finished!

Will do. Only have Lucy herself stitched so far, though!

Courtenay wrote:
I certainly agree that Narnia isn't the most sophisticated or complex of imaginary worlds ever invented, but it was the product of one particular author's own ideas, beliefs, tastes and objectives - as are all fictional places - and that's what it reflects. In Lewis's case, as a devoted lay Christian writer, he was simply using an invented world as the vehicle for presenting his take on Christian themes to children without being too preachy or "churchy".

Very well put Courtenay.
The books were read to our class in the junior school whilst I was deep in the throes of discovering the Adventure Series for the very first time.
I really enjoyed them,but I admit I was so so sad when one of the main characters passed away!!

Ah well - SPOILER ALERT - there are a lot more passings in the last book, but also a great sense of wonder and hope at what might be beyond this limited and temporal world. I was just thinking earlier, in light of Narnia's rather brief historical time-span, that has something to do with Lewis's central motive of illustrating matters of Christian faith - one of the main themes of which, of course, is life after death. Perhaps there are other ways he could have done it, but the way he chose was with an end-of-the-world / final judgment scenario.

Naturally, as another part of that objective, he also wanted to explore the creation of a world in what became the first book in chronological order (The Magician's Nephew). And as part of the plot's continuity, he has the same human characters - Digory and Polly - witness both Narnia's beginning and its end. That means that although Narnian time "flows differently" from ours, the land's entire history still had to be compressed within a human lifetime in our world.

To me, that explains why Narnia only had 2,000 years or so of existence in Lewis's chronology (according to a timeline he later wrote, corresponding to about 50 years - 1900-1949 - in our own world's history). Not really a perfect solution by any means, but looking at what he was setting out to achieve, it's at least understandable.

I've just discovered an hour-long documentary about C.S. Lewis available in full on YouTube: C.S. Lewis: Life Story with a Purpose

There are no credits or other information included, so I'm not sure when it was made or who by, but it's a very sympathetic and moving biographic piece. While there wasn't much in it that I hadn't heard before, I must say I never realised how deeply his wife's death, late in his own life, wounded him, to the point of almost completely shattering his faith - and yet he did regain it (though resigning himself to the lingering unanswered questions) before his own passing. A very human story and one I found well worth watching.

Lewis''s choice of symbols for Susan's materialism is sexist, though to be fair, extremely common in children's' literature of the time.

Courtenay wrote:[...] I must say I never realised how deeply his wife's death, late in his own life, wounded him, to the point of almost completely shattering his faith

     I was aware of this, actually, because, quite some years ago, I read his little book "A Grief Observed", which is basically his personal account of this.
     While some people have found this book moving or even inspiring in a way, I have to say I found it profoundly depressing, and very sad indeed.
     But I think I have many of these doubts myself (about the pointlessness of life, etc.) more than most people do, so perhaps I am more susceptible to being influenced adversely by the things Lewis said in his book.

Regards, Michael.

I haven't read A Grief Observed, Michael, although I did read somewhere that Lewis published it anonymously at first, and one of his friends who had read it offered it to Lewis as a remarkable exploration of just what Lewis was going through - not realising that Lewis himself wrote it!

On another note, just earlier today in the excellent charity bookshop in Egham (not far from Windsor), I picked up an unused (still in its original plastic wrapper!) audiobook recording of The Horse and His Boy, unabridged, on 4 CDs, read by British actor Alex Jennings. (It had the original price tag of £14.99 on it. I much prefer the charity bookshop's asking price of £3.50.) I'll give it a listen tonight while I'm working on my Narnia cross stitch!

Anita Bensoussane wrote:

Courtenay wrote:To hark back to an earlier topic for a moment, I remember mentioning I'd bought the pattern for a cross stitch design of Lucy meeting Mr Tumnus. As of a few weeks ago, I've finally started work on it! Very much enjoying it, too.

Ah yes - I remember you mentioning that! It would be great to see a photo of it when it's finished!

Just finished my Narnia cross stitch today! This is the best photo I could manage of it, although it doesn't do the colours justice — they're much brighter in reality and the background fabric is actually a mottled pale blue, not grey:

That's gorgeous, Courtenay. It captures an iconic moment beautifully. Well done on getting it finished!

Wow! That's excellent!

That scene, with Mr. Tumnus and Lucy walking through the snowy wood with the street lamp glowing behind them is quintessential Narnia for me. It was the illustration accompanying an extract of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in a Children's Treasury that I had as a child, and I pored over the illustration many times and took in every detail. There's really no price to put to a good illustrator of children's books!

That's beautiful, Courtenay. It must be so satisfying to have it finished. My sister is wonderful at cross stitch too, and she always has a couple of projects on the go. She gave me a framed cross stich of some Kentish oast-houses which I love especially because they remind me of home. Now, if only she'll ask me if I'd like another cross-stich from her, I'll know what to suggest!

Thanks for your kind words, everyone. I've no idea when I'll have this work framed — nearly all my completed cross stitch pieces are still rolled up in storage, waiting until I have a home of my own to display them in! — but one day...

Spitfire wrote:My sister is wonderful at cross stitch too, and she always has a couple of projects on the go. She gave me a framed cross stich of some Kentish oast-houses which I love especially because they remind me of home. Now, if only she'll ask me if I'd like another cross-stich from her, I'll know what to suggest!

Sarah, the chart for this piece was in the magazine Cross Stitch Gold — December 2011 edition, I think it was. I bought it solely for the Mr Tumnus design! I still have the pages with the chart and instructions, which I can't imagine I'll be needing again, so if you do want to drop a definite hint to your sister, I'd be very happy to post the chart to you!

That's very kind Courtenay. If you're quite sure you won't use it again I wouldn't mind. I'll PM you my address. Thank you.

I really like that piece of cross-stitch. Hope you find somewhere to display it.