Even that Turkish Delight that Edmund is given – his thirty pieces of silver to betray his siblings, of course – must have seemed like an almost unattainable treat to Lewis’s original readers. While I never actually transported to another world, this book is like its own Narnia - a transport into something magical. These explorations of the intersection between the realms of fantasy and religion would surely not exist without Lewis’s influence. How was it possible that an English girl could transport herself to another place, simply by hiding in a wardrobe? But if you are unfamiliar with this beloved children’s tale, this is a story about four children who have been recently adopted by an old professor who lives in a massive house.

Mr Tumnus was SO human - and naked (except for a little scarf) - from the waist up, that his taking Lucy home seemed even worse than on the page.Indeed, Tumnus confesses to Lucy that he should report Lucy’s presence in Narnia to the White Witch, but he can’t bring himself to do it. Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy’s economic and social standing are never explored—but by virtue of their ability to travel to the countryside to enter the care of a clearly wealthy and landed ward, the Professor, it can be inferred that they come from a family of means with the ability to shelter them from the horrors of war.

But if we stick with mid-twentieth-century fiction and animals for a moment, we can find an example of unequivocal allegory: George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945), which we have analysed here.

The girls arrived in early September of 1939, and by late September, Lewis had begun work on the manuscript that would become The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Theatre includes: Into The Woods (Theatre Royal Bath); Rhinegold (ENO); Il Trovatore, Alcina, Madama Butterfly, Lohengrin, Nabucco and Die Zauberflöte (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden); Madagascar: The Musical (UK and International Tour); Hairspray (Pimlico Opera); Stiles and Drewe’s The Wind in the Willows (London Palladium and UK Tour); Magic at the Musicals (Royal Albert Hall); The Best of Musical Starnights (German Tour); Jonathan Lewis’ Our Boys, Closer Than Ever and Early Birds (Edinburgh Fringe); My Land’s Shore (Theatr Soar); The Railway Children and The Light Princess (Cadogan Hall); Merrily We Roll Along (Yvonne Arnaud); Shakespeare Live! Theatre credits include: Dance To The Bone (Sherman Theatre), Henry II (RBL Theatre Company) Sunny Afternoon (Sonia Friedman, Harold Pinter Theatre), School For Scandal and Romeo And Juliet (The Tabacco Factory), Ragnorok (The Hush House), Sons Without Fathers (Belgrade Theatre), The Jungle Book (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Antony And Cleopatra (Chichester Festival Theatre) and Treasure Island (Nuffield Theatre). Edmund is injured, and Peter explains to the others that Edmund was the one to destroy the Witch's wand.