leaving four children on the thrones of Narnia isn't a hideous tactical error that would be followed up in short order by a Calormene invasion.
Myself I suspect that the rationale for that was that he hadn't invented Calormen at the time.
I wonder if the evacuation stuff was done because the original book audience would have known why the kids were where they were and TPTB thought a modern one would be fatally puzzled? I was reading a story the other day with a group of students and came on the place-name Oradour-sur-Glane. I expected they'd all share the same frisson I felt as I realised what was going to happen - turned out none of them had ever heard of it. They weren't all 18 either - some at least in their mid-30s. History gets lost very quickly.
no subject
Myself I suspect that the rationale for that was that he hadn't invented Calormen at the time.
I wonder if the evacuation stuff was done because the original book audience would have known why the kids were where they were and TPTB thought a modern one would be fatally puzzled? I was reading a story the other day with a group of students and came on the place-name Oradour-sur-Glane. I expected they'd all share the same frisson I felt as I realised what was going to happen - turned out none of them had ever heard of it. They weren't all 18 either - some at least in their mid-30s. History gets lost very quickly.