Book Review: The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis

The Magician’s Nephew – C.S. Lewis

*Warning – may contain spoilers*

Author: C.S. Lewis

Publisher: Lions

First published: 1955

Edition: Paperback as part of a box set

Pages: 171

Blurb:    The whole adventure begins when Digory and Polly find themselves in eccentric Uncle Andrew’s secret study. But when Uncle Andrew tricks Polly into touching the magic ring, she vanishes into the Other World. Digory is aghast, and determines immediately to go in search of her. Not only does he find Polly but together they listen to Aslan’s song as he creates the enchanted world of Narnia, full of sun, trees, flowers, grass and animals.

History of my copy: The Chronicles of Narnia has been one of those series that I have always wanted to read for a very long time, but I just never got around to picking them up. At a car boot sale, a man was selling nearly his entire book collection as he was moving to Canada and didn’t want the cost of transporting them all. I ended up getting the 1990 box set for £2.50.

Plot: I will admit that I was initially thrown by this book. When I started the Chronicles of Narnia, I expected the story I was familiar with (The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe), but obviously this book chronicles the beginning and creation of Narnia by Aslan, which took me a little while to realise. So, this book follows Digory and Polly as they are tricked into the Woods Between Worlds by Digory’s Uncle. Ending up in another world, Charn, they accidently awaken the evil Jadis. She flees, later becoming the White Witch, and Digory ends up helping Aslan, and subsequently creates a wardrobe out of magical wood…

Setting: One thing that Lewis does particularly well, and I feel like he is renowned for, is his scene setting. The imagery in this book, and I imagine in the rest of the series, is very vivid and it feels as if you are truly there.

Characters: One criticism I do have with this book is that none of the characters were particularly interesting. I didn’t feel attached, or even any dislike, to any of the characters and now, a little while after reading the book, I can’t even remember anything remarkable about any of them.

To read or not to read: Don’t read. Unless you are a huge Narnia fan, I don’t really recommend it. This book did nothing for me, apart from perhaps giving a little insight into the creation of Narnia.

Dog Walks: Kit Hill

Kit Hill - 16/08/18

One of the historic buildings included on the walk

I took Evie to a dog show in St Dominick a couple Sundays ago, and she did me proud winning 2nd in both most cuddliest dog and best sporting dog!

Got a little bit closer for this one...

After the show, we popped back to Kit Hill for a quick run around the stack at the summit. Although I used to go there quite regularly, I hadn't been for years and so I added it to my list of places to take Evie.

Evie enjoys posing

We did the circular walk starting from the bottom car park that goes up to the shaft then down around the quarry before heading back to the start. It takes about 2 hours to do, although I stopped to take lots of photos in the process.

The shaft

We really enjoyed our walk around the hill exploring all the old mining buildings.

The shaft up close

The view from the top is quite breathtaking

Proper poser...

Evie is good off the lead and sticks to the path, which is good as it is known for adders and mine shafts...

Suitable footwear is required, especially for the second half of the walk, as it got quite rocky.

These little stones guided
the way

Evie had a quick paddle in the quarry

The only complaint I had was that the route wasn't the easiest to follow, and I certainly deviated from the proper path a few times. A few more guide stones would have been useful!

Thanks for reading! Keep your eyes open for our next adventure!

| Golitha Falls | Lifton Recreational Field | Colliford Lake and Dozmary Pool |

Dog Walks: Colliford Lake and Dozmary Pool

Colliford Lake and Dozmary Pool - 31/07/18

Welcome to my latest post detailing my adventures with Evie! 

Colliford Lake boasts some nice beaches

 Colliford Lake has been on my 'to visit' list for a very long time. As the largest (I think) lake in Cornwall, I have always wanted to go there and see just how big it is in person.

Evie found herself a nice large stick

 Although I've driven past it a few times, and even been to one of the car parks there, I've never actually wandered down to see it!

Surprisingly nice sand for a lake!

 My aim was to actually walk all the way around it but, in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't! The lake is huge, and I even discovered an extra part of it as I drove around to Dozmary Pool.

Found some wild horses

They were very relaxed when faced with Evie and I

Evie loved walking around the lake and was surprisingly well-behaved off the lead.

The lake certainly offered some beautiful photo opportunities

Evie loved it!

Look who found another stick...

The horses even came down for a drink

I only walked for about 45 minutes along the lake, and then back again, but since I've looked on maps how far I went, I'm quite surprised!












Maybe one day I will pack a bag for us and spend the day walking the entire edge.

After visiting Colliford Lake, I drove around the lake to a little one called Dozmary Pool.

Just from the path down you could see why
this lake is one of legends

 You might remember from some of my previous posts that I am a huge fan of Arthurian legend, and so Dozmary Pool was another legendary place to tick off my list.

Although smaller than Colliford, Dozmary is just as
breathtaking

 Dozmary Pool is the rumoured home of the Lady of the Lake, and the resting place of Excalibur, where it was returned after Arthur's death.

I'm quite jealous of the houses on the edge of the pool!

 At the pool, we found these two dogs that were collar-less and wandering around without an owner... After asking at the nearby houses, I eventually found out that they belonged to the farm up the road.

They were very friendly and Evie adored them! 

 You can certainly see why Dozmary Pool is a place of legends! There was certainly a mystical feel as I walked around the lake.

Thanks for reading! I hope you are enjoying Evie and my adventures!

| Golitha Falls | Lifton Recreational Field |

Complete Anatomy Colouring Book Part 1

Although it has been a while since I did an adult colouring update, hopefully you can remember that it became one of my new obsessions a couple Christmas' ago! I've since added a couple more colouring books to my collection, although I have struggled to find time to do one.

For a secret santa Christmas present at university this year, I was gifted the Complete Anatomy Colouring Book and I love it - I can enjoy colouring, whilst classing it as revision!

This is the first page of that book, covering the organisation of the autonomic nervous system. As you can see, I used my bright Crayola pencils to colour it in with a colour schematic to help me remember which functions are controlled by which nerves. 

Dog Walks: Lifton Recreation Field

Lifton Recreation Field - 28/07/18

Hi guys! So last Saturday I decided to take Evie to a local dog show in Lifton after work. Although she didn't do too well, she did win 5th in Best Short Coat, Fancy Dress and Waggiest Tail and 6th in Best Movement.

Evie looking proud with her rosettes

Evie's first prize would have been Fastest Bonio Eater but the show forgot the biscuits.. The class was then replaced with Most Like The Owner, which is terrible as Evie and I are complete opposites!

The river in the park was pretty

As the weather held off a little longer, and to reward Evie, we had a run around the park and found this gorgeous river running along the bottom of the field.

It was nice and quiet with just Evie and I

If you read my last post, you would know that Evie loves the water! It was so hard to get her out of here in the end because she kept swimming around and finding more sticks to play with.

The bridge was really picturesque

Thanks for reading, catch you later!

| Golitha Falls |

Dog Walks: Golitha Falls

Golitha Falls - 20/07/2018

Hi guys! So I thought I would do a new series of posts on my blog featuring some of my favourite dog walks. In case you didn't know, there are three dogs in my household: the family dog Merlin, a black labrador, my brother's dog Ringo, a black Jack Russell, and my dog Evie, also a black labrador.

One of the many falls at Golitha

Evie's standard walks are usually in the lanes where I live in Cornwall, or down to the river for a swim, or into some fields for a run. However, when I have free time I like to visit a variety of places. Living in the South West means that there are so many gorgeous walks, and I think it's about time I share them with you! 

Although we haven't had much rain lately, there was certainly
enough water to keep Golitha looking very pretty

As I'm on summer at the moment, I've made a list of places I would love to go and take Evie to. The first one we ticked off our list was Golitha Falls, a very pretty river/woodland walk on the edge of Bodmin Moor, near Liskaerd.

As you can see, the many falls made a beautiful walk

It's a place that I keep meaning to visit, especially as it is only half an hour from where I live, but I never got around to going!

Along with the falls, there were many parts of the
river that Evie could swim in

Like a typical labrador, Evie loves swimming and it's very difficult to get her out of the water.

Evie enjoyed the walk

It was very cool in Golitha

It was a lovely little walk where you follow the river and admire the falls, then come back through the woods at the end. I was gone for most of the afternoon as I spent a lot of time sat on the rocks and just enjoying the day while Evie swam. Although parts of the walk were fairly flat and accessible, parts did involve climbing over rocks so it's not for the less adventurous of us!

Evie's new favourite place

I hope you enjoyed this post! Do you have any recommendations for walks down in the South West? If so, comment them below!