Oh, the problematic fave. When I was a kid this was my absolute favourite of the Narnia books. Which is mostly down to Aravis and Hwin - in my mind, this book's real title was A Horse and Her Girl. I just adored Aravis, then and now.

That being said, I don't think I've read this since I was a kid, and wow. Doing a Narnia reread now and Aravis aside, this book is pretty damn racist. And sexist, too, though not at the same level; I note that Lewis is taking yet another opportunity to diss Susan for being an adult woman. (Lucy, on the other hand, who rides to war is "as good as a man, or at any rate as good as a boy".) That's not even going into the absolute caricature that is Lasaraleen. Yeah, thanks for that, Mr. Lewis, don't think I don't see what you were doing there.

Honestly, I was pretty shocked. A lot of Narnia went over my head as a kid - I spent years reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe without realising that Aslan was meant to be Jesus, for instance - and I missed a lot here as well, too busy drooling over Pauline Baynes' illustration of Tashbaan and the tombs like a big desert Stonehenge. Reading it today and I'm giving this book serious side-eye. But I still love it, even if I can't give it five stars, and it's still my favourite of the series. For nostalgia as much as Aravis, I think. Problematic fave it is.