In Once Upon a Wardrobe (2021), Patti Callahan explores the origins of one of the most beloved stories in children’s literature: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. Set in 1950, Once Upon a Wardrobe follows Megs Devonshire, a brilliant mathematics student at Oxford University who is tasked by her dying younger brother, George, to find out where Narnia came from. George’s deep love of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe prompts Megs to seek answers directly from its creator, Lewis. Through her interactions with Lewis, Megs uncovers not just the factual origins of the stories but also the deep, emotional truths that they represent about life, loss, and the imagination. The novel blends biographical fiction with elements of literary analysis and magical realism, appealing to readers who enjoy books about books and the profound impact that stories can have on individuals. Callahan is a New York Times best-selling author and was awarded the Harper Lee Distinguished Writer of the Year award in 2020. Her 2018 novel Becoming Mrs. Lewis is written from the perspective of Lewis’s wife, Joy Davidman.

This guide refers to the Harper Muse 2021 e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide refer to terminal illness and death.

Plot Summary

The novel begins in December 1950. Eight-year-old George Devonshire lives in Worcestershire, England, and he is dying of a heart condition. Beside his bed is a copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a recently published book by C. S. Lewis. The novel is about four child evacuees who are sent to live with a professor during World War II and discover a wardrobe that leads to the magical land of Narnia. Lewis’s book allows George to escape his bedroom via his imagination. Although his wardrobe does not provide access to a magical world, he likes to sit inside and imagine that he is in Narnia. George knows that Lewis is a tutor at Oxford University, where his 17-year-old sister, Margaret (or “Megs”), is a scholarship student.

Megs is studying mathematics at Somerville College, Oxford; she instinctively understands math and physics formulas. Megs does not socialize with the other students and returns home on weekends to see her beloved brother. She tells George that she has seen Lewis but has never met him; he teaches English literature at Magdalen College, where female students are prohibited. Megs has not read Lewis’s new work and dismisses it as a children’s book. When George insists that he needs to know where Narnia came from, his sister promises to find out. She and her parents are devastated by George’s illness and want to help him in any way they can.

Megs attends a public lecture by Lewis and follows him to his home, the Kilns, several times. Lewis’s brother, Warren (or “Warnie”), spots her lurking on the grounds. When Megs meets Lewis, she discusses her brother’s condition and his question about where Narnia came from. Lewis says that he is unable to answer George’s question directly, but he can tell Megs stories. The author stops Megs from taking notes, insisting that she must write down what she remembers afterward.

Lewis reveals that his friends and family have always called him Jack, as he dislikes his given name, Clive Staples. He describes his childhood home, Little Lea in Ireland, and recounts how he and Warnie invented a land called Boxen when they were children; it contained talking animals, which were inspired by the Beatrix Potter stories. Lewis was a sickly child and often confined to bed. He occupied himself by reading and listening to his nanny’s Irish fairy stories.

Lewis’s mother was a writer and studied mathematics and physics at Queen’s College, Belfast. When Lewis was eight, she took her sons to Dunluce Castle. Lewis was overwhelmed with a sense of “longing” when he saw the fairy-tale-like castle. Lewis’s mother died of cancer when he was 10 years old, devastating him.

When Megs relates this story, George suggests that Dunluce Castle became Cair Paravel in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He asks Megs to bring him some notebooks and colored pencils because he wants to write and draw, just as Lewis did at his age.

Megs is attracted to Padraig, a literature student from Northern Ireland who is tutored by Lewis. However, she declines his social invitations. When Megs tells Padraig that Lewis has not yet answered George’s question, he suggests that the answer may lie in his stories. Megs asserts that literature is not as important as science, but Padraig argues that stories contain universal truths.

Lewis tells Megs that he was sent to join Warnie at the Wynyard School in England after his mother’s death. He hated the experience, as the headmaster unjustly punished pupils and many of the other boys laughed at his sporting ineptitude. Lewis started a reading club. He also lost faith in God.

Megs admires George’s skillful drawing of Lewis in his attic as a child, which depicts a lion in the background. Meanwhile, George privately reflects that his sister’s storytelling abilities are improving. When Megs asks George what he wants for Christmas, he replies that he wants to visit Dunluce Castle.

Lewis describes his early literary influences. When he was 13 years old, he became fascinated with Norse mythology, feeling that the harsh landscapes, “endless winters,” and resurrected gods were somehow a part of him. As a 16-year-old, Lewis discovered Phantastes by George MacDonald, which he admired. Lewis immediately shared it with his friend, Arthur Greeves. Arthur was a boy of the same age who lived near Little Lea and had a debilitating heart condition.

On hearing this story, George comments on the coincidence that Lewis’s friend Arthur was also confined to bed with a heart condition. Megs confirms that Arthur is still alive, and Lewis visits him in Belfast. Megs reads Phantastes and is completely absorbed by it.

George is briefly hospitalized, and Megs relates Lewis’s latest story to him. While studying at Oxford University, he joined the Officer’s Training Corps. He was sent to France in World War I and was hospitalized twice with trench fever and a shrapnel wound. Many of his friends, including his roommate Paddy Moore, were killed in action. On returning to England, Lewis graduated with a Triple First and published his first book of poetry. He also honored his promise to look after Paddy’s mother and sister, who moved in with him. Megs adds that Mrs. Moore is now in a nursing home, and Lewis visits her daily.

During the holidays, Lewis invites Megs to his tutor rooms at Magdalen College. When she arrives, he is writing to his American penfriend, Joy Davidman. Lewis describes how during World War II, he took in three evacuees from London: Annamaria, Sheila, and Rose. One day, Sheila asked if there was anything behind one of the wardrobes. Inspired, Lewis wrote the first few lines of a story about child evacuees sent to stay with an old professor.

Lewis’s final story is about his friendship with J. R. R. Tolkien and their membership of the Oxford literary society, the Inklings. Tolkien and his friend Hugo Dyson were both devout Catholics and, during a long debate, persuaded Lewis that the story of Christ was both mythic and true. The conversation prompted Lewis’s conversion to Christianity. On another occasion, Lewis and Tolkien challenged each other to write books that they would have enjoyed as children. Lewis remembered his unfinished story about the evacuees and renamed the characters Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. When Megs finishes recounting Lewis’s story, George declares that she has become “a storyteller.”

Megs returns to the Kilns in a final attempt to gain a more straightforward answer to George’s question. Lewis confirms that the character Lucy is named after his goddaughter and reveals that images of the faun, Mr. Tumnus, and the lion, Aslan, came to him in dreams or visions. Megs asks if the lion Aslan is God. Lewis replies that his characters are archetypes, but Aslan is how God might appear in another world. Lewis emphasizes that now that he has told all his stories, Megs must get on with life and create her own.

Megs is surprised and delighted when Padraig kisses her. On the morning before Christmas Eve, Padraig unexpectedly arrives at the Devonshires’ house, insisting on taking George and Megs to Dunluce Castle. When they reach the ruins, George looks more alive than Megs has ever seen him.

On Christmas morning, Padraig delivers a handwritten scroll to Megs and declares that he loves her. The manuscript tells the story of George’s life so far. Padraig tells Megs that she must write the rest.

Years later, Megs and Padraig are married and have retired from their academic careers at Oxford. Megs reads her published book, Once Upon a Wardrobe, to her grandson, George, which features her brother’s illustrations. George died shortly after their last Christmas together in 1950 with his gaze fixed on the wardrobe. Megs tells her grandson that as George passed from one world to the next, he heard a lion roar.