Through the Wardrobe

One of my favourite childhood books was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the whole series of Narnia tales. Being one of the first novels I ever read, it made a huge impression on me, and I still return to it quite regularly and find myself magically enchanted by the same sense of wonder and delight that first got me "hooked". Who of those who have read these books has not on some occasion opened their wardrobe and longed to find a different world behind the coats? And dreamed of being beckoned by a shining lamppost, oddly located in the middle of a wood? The lamppost in the book seemed so ordinary, yet also so bizarre –out of place, yet strangely seductive and comforting. The moment I saw this lamp while out walking in the Malvern Hills recently I cried "Narnia!", and it was only later I learned that it is indeed here C.S. Lewis got the idea for the lamppost in his books. These lampposts were set out decades ago as a source of illumination, to aid people taking their daily constitutional in dim light. They seem somehow out of place –like they should rather belong in a city street– and yet at the same time they seem perfectly in place! Such an anomaly is truly in the spirit of Narnia. Of course, the picture should have been taken in the dark and with snow on the ground, and ideally there should be a Mr. Tumnus lurking about in the trees, or perhaps a witch? Who knows; perhaps they are there in the shadows... Location: Malvern, England