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Hello and welcome to Spectator's Books Club podcast.

I'm Sam Leith, the literary editor for The Spectator, and this week I'm joined by Piers Torday,

the children's writer who's shot to international superstardom with his last wild trilogy,

and who's now two books into a new trilogy began with The Lost Magician

and his new book is The Frozen Sea, which is a wintry sort of tale and appropriate for this

time of year. Piers, welcome. Tell us a bit about the Frozen Sea. What's this new trilogy about

and how does it differ from the last one?

Well, essentially in 2016, when by most people's reckoning, the world seemed to go a bit weird,

not least of all, lots of celebrities dying without giving us due notice,

but more fundamental shifts in our perception of where the world was turning and the political

consensus, unpredictable events. I found myself taking refuge in nostalgia and I reread the

lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. A book I loved as a child and kind of got me into reading

as much as any other text. And I was struck by a couple of things.

I was struck by how well it stood up as a story today, as a narrative, as an adventure,

against books like Dark Materials and Harry Potter.

Dark Materials are very much against Narnia.

But much I love is dark materials, I would argue that Lyon Wichinin Wardrobe is a considerably

shorter and in places just as thrilling.

And C.S. Lewis has fallen out of favour recently for various reasons.

...