Hi, welcome to Seriously, with Me Testament. I've just finished reading the line,

the witch and the wardrobe to my daughter.

For me it was a classic growing up and I love taking the time to share Seius Lewis's tale with

her young curious imagination.

She didn't quite appreciate the vivid historical references or the deep theological underpinnings of the narrative,

and apparently there weren't enough pictures.

Well, she is four.

Next week we do Tolstoy.

Maybe I should try Kenneth Graham's classic children's book, The Wind in the Willows.

That's a book that really resonated with Lauren Levern.

In this documentary, Lauren tells the story of the book and its creator

who came up with the stories as bedtime tales for his young son, Alistair. This is Levern in the Willows.

We're here in the Wild Woods, the Wild Wood from the Wind in the Willows.

And it's funny really because you might think that you'd want to

start a documentary about the wind in the willows on the riverbank in the

middle of summer, drifting on a boat and stopping for a picnic just like Ratty and Moll somewhere idyllic and beautiful.

But I thought we'd come here first because the reason that we go back and back and back to Kenneth

Graham's Wind in the Willows is the contrast between that, that glorious

idyllic summer day and this, the freezing friendless terror of these woods. And let me tell tell you it is flipping freezing.

So here's more then he's our innocent isn't he, our every mall taking his first trip drawn inexorably into the dark moor of the wildwood.

He swung off the path and plunged into the untrodden places of the wood.

Then the pattering began.

...