I see that Philip Pullman has taken up his critique of Narnia again on Alex O’Connor’s Within Reason, calling C. S. Lewis’s messages “a dirty lie”. I'm excited that I'll have an article online for The Critic magazine to engage Pullman's interpretation more directly. But for now I’ll just point out how curious it is that Pullman begins Northern Lights (or The Golden Compass in the US) with his young heroine Lyra hiding in a wardrobe.

Lyra sneaks into the Retiring Room where she sees the Master poisoning her Uncle’s drink, and has to hide in an old oak wardrobe. From here, her whole adventure unfolds.

Perhaps even here at the beginning Pullman was, consciously or unconsciously, reacting to C. S. Lewis, where The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe begins with Lucy hiding in the wardrobe that turns out to be the portal to Narnia.

And in this we see a crucial difference:

• Lyra is trespassing somewhere forbidden, though necessary for her to begin her journey.

• Lucy’s exploration of the wardrobe is innocent, not rebellious.

This detail is key to the whole difference between Lewis and Pullman, and to the debate about innocence and sin, maturity and growing-up, that goes back to Milton’s Paradise Lost and to the Creation and Fall narrative in the book of Genesis.

Watch out for my full essay soon!