"When I had done The Voyage," Jack later recalled, "I felt quite sure it would be the last. But I found I was wrong." In 1953, he wrote The Silver Chair, and the following year, The Horse and His Boy, which was set during the time period of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

As for the "magnificent lion," he plays an important role in every story: in The Magician's Nephew, he gives life to Narnia; in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, he defeats the evil of the White Witch; and in the final volume of what is now known as "The Chronicles of Narnia" (The Last Battle) Aslan concludes the story of Narnia and leads its faithful friends to a new world.

C. S. Lewis once said: "People won't write the books I want, so I have to do it for myself." In doing so, he wrote the books that millions of other people also wanted to read. The Chronicles of Narnia have captivated several generations of reader -- young and old -- and, happily, show no sign of losing their magical hold over our imaginations.

By Brian Sibley,
taken from the Introduction to
The Complete Chronicles of Narnia