How to get to fantasy lands

Carol uses the stairs, but there are many, many ways to get to fantasy lands — almost as many as there are lands. A surprising number of these ways can be found in your average household or its environs.

Below are just some of the many ways used by people (mostly fictional people, it has to be said), in the past. Please note, these do not always work...

a wardrobe

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C S Lewis

a window

“The Wonderful Window” by Lord Dunsany

stairs

The Haunted Woman by David Lindsay

a door in a wall

“The Door in the Wall” by H G Wells

a tiny door in a wall

The Witch, the Saint & the Shoemaker by Aonghus Fallon

a tiny, bricked-up door in a wall

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

a book

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

a painting

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C S Lewis

a pack of cards

Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny

a rabbit hole

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

a mirror

Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

the back of a sofa

“The Realm of Lost Things” by Murray Ewing

a carpet

Weaveworld by Clive Barker

a ladder

The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton

crossing a stream

Threshold by Ursula Le Guin

a tornado

The Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum

a ruined church

Elidor by Alan Garner

the roof of Notre Dames in Paris

Strange Evil by Jane Gaskell

a beanstalk

“Jack and the Beanstalk”