The Lives of Christopher Chant

"There is so much children’s fiction that is described as parallel worlds fiction – from Narnia to Alice in Wonderland to Marianne Dreams and so on. Diana Wynne Jones is a brilliant writer of this sort of book: it’s about a schoolboy who discovers that in his dreams he travels to many worlds. He’s quite innocent about it all and sees it as a child would – as an amazing experience that he doesn’t particularly try to analyse. His uncle asks him to do some experiments and sends him into these worlds with a spirit traveller called Tacroy, and tries to get him to bring stuff back. Christopher thinks his childhood fantasies have been recognised by an exciting adult, but the reality is that his uncle’s just trading the stuff on the black market. The point is, though, that Christopher experiences these parallel worlds incredibly vividly and physically, and they’re tangible; whereas Tacroy, perhaps because he’s an adult and not in tune, only really sees them as a mist. Again it’s about who has access to these worlds and what they take with them; how the reasons why they get there define what happens when they get there. Tacroy envies Christopher’s access, but equally Christopher’s access is far less informed – he doesn’t understand what’s going on at first. I suppose the reason parallel worlds fiction appeals to children is because the child is a bit like a lunatic in some way – they don’t stand within these ordinary worlds’ orthodoxies and they haven’t yet been socialised or told the ways in which they have to direct their thoughts and censor their personalities."

"Yes, there are some striking parallels. This is also a standalone prequel written after the original (which was Charmed Life ), and it also features an in-between space that leads to the other worlds… There is some great research on the recurring features of childhood play, and one common motif is liminal spaces – spaces that don’t quite belong to one place or another, and haven’t got an allocated use – alleys and gaps and abandoned spaces. The unused attic space of old townhouses, in the case of The Magician’s Nephew . I think these between-world spaces really tap into that. But there’s an additional brilliant touch in The Lives of Christopher Chant , which is that this in-between space is accessed by dreaming. Christopher doesn’t realise that other people’s dreams aren’t like his. He simply gets up each night and finds the corner he needs to turn to enter ‘the place between the worlds’, a rather formless and unfriendly valley. That’s right, and I think it’s a big part of the appeal. All the adults in Christopher’s life have designs for him, and argue with each other over his future, and shunt him around to all these places he doesn’t want to be. But at night, he’s off exploring a series of worlds, and it’s not dangerous or scary or confusing – he’s very confident pottering around in them, enjoying some independence there. He hangs out with mermaids and breaks into temples and tries weird foods and just generally explores. It’s not a huge deal. Sometimes he’s too tired and he can’t be bothered. This is the beauty of Diana Wynne-Jones, I think. Her magic feels so real, because it’s never overblown. It’s just another fact in people’s lives. It turns out that Christopher can only dream this way because he’s a nine-lived enchanter, and that means he’s going to have to train to be the next Chrestomanci, a hugely important magical job – and he reacts as you would if you wanted to stay at your boarding school and play cricket, and instead you are sent to live with stuffy government bureaucrats. It feels incredibly real, and so easy to get immersed in."