CS Lewis Narnia letter sells for £9,800 at auction

The two-page letter was written by Narnia creator CS Lewis to pupils at Grittleton House School in Wiltshire

A letter written by Narnia creator CS Lewis to a group of schoolchildren has sold at auction for almost £10,000.

The two-page letter was sent to pupils at Grittleton House School in Wiltshire on 22 May 1952.

Written after the success of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the letter reveals the title of his third book will be The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader.

Chris Albury, from Dominic Winter Auctioneers in Gloucester, said it was sold to an online bidder for £9,800,

Its estimate was about £5,000 but Mr Albury said there was some "very intense bidding" before it was sold to the London-based buyer.

The Chronicles of Narnia has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide.

The letter, written in the author's rooms at Magdalen College in Oxford, reveals the saga's third book will include a sea serpent, a dragon, and "lots of strange islands" which he hopes the children "will all like".

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was published in 1950 and has been adapted for stage, TV and film

It also describes his plans to have seven stories in the series and his uncertainty of how the saga will end.

"What do you think would be a good thing to end the whole series with? Of course Aslan (the lion) will come into them all," he writes.

He also recommends some of his favourite books and asks the pupils if they write stories as "I did at your age: it is the greatest fun".

Mr Albury said: "When he was writing The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader he thought it would be the last in the series, so the news that he now believed that the series would contain seven stories is new.

"It is these kinds of insights that are literary autograph collecting gold dust."

Grittleton House, an independent co-educational school, closed in 2016 with alumni including singer-songwriter Jamie Cullum.

Lewis explains that there will be a total of seven stories that make up The Chronicles Of Narnia