Day 23: a picture of your favourite book

Well, there were so many to choose from and even after much thought I might not have hit on my absolute dead favourite of all time, assuming such a creature exists anyway. But this is certainly up there at the very highest levels of the Top Arbitrary Number.

It's certainly my favourite of all the Narnias. I remember the thrill my infant mind felt when it worked out the concept of a prequel from first principles. That's the white witch! They're in Narnia! (The presence of the lion was a bit of a clue there.) So that's where the wardrobe came from ...

Also, the creation of Narnia is one of the most beautiful passages in fantasy fiction ever, and the fact that much, if not most, of it is set in the real world - even the real world of 100 years ago - also gives it that much more resonance.