Philip Pullman Books

Philip Pullman Books

"The story I was trying to write was about real people, not beings that don’t exist like elves or hobbits. Lyra and Will and the other characters are meant to be human beings like us, and the story is about a universal human experience, namely growing up."
"Without stories, we wouldn’t be human beings at all."

Philip Pullman


As we enter the fantastical world created by Philip Pullman in his powerful series of novels that began with The Golden Compass, we find we are immersed into a world so close to our own with its dreaming spires, university colleges, scientists and explorers yet so far removed. Ensconced in magic and surrounded by Daemons, by the time we finish the first instalment of the Northern Lights trilogy, we long for this other magical world and feel almost bereft finding ourselves back in the real world without our own personal Daemon companion.

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The skill of Philip Pullman as a writer that has garnered his success, is perhaps his fluid ability to hone his works to appeal to children, yet still be stirring for adults who get equally entranced by his epic tales. This skill was perhaps finessed during Pullman's career working as a teacher, as well as teaching teachers to teach. His passionate love of the English language and literature, enamored by masterpieces such as Milton's Paradise Lost and Coleridge's epic Poem The Ancient Mariner, unbeknownst even perhaps to himself, sowed the fertile seeds for the great children's fantasy novels he would eventually write.

Initially, it could be said he cast his net too wide his output included works aimed distinctly at either adults or children, although his talent for crafting plays that could be enjoyed in school by both the adults and children gained him success and publication of such works as 'Ruby in the Smoke'. Although enjoyable these pale besides The Northern Lights series of books that would gain him his most outstanding critical acclaim, winning such accolades as the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children's Book Prize, The 2001 Whitbread book of thbe year award as well as a suprising nomination for a children's book, for the greatly respected Booker Prize.

Since these novels were published in the early 2000's we have journeyed with Lyra many times as we continued her story through the epic creation that began with Northern Lights, His Dark Materials and led to other companion novels as the world fell in love with his character Lyra and her riveting journey through life in her strange world.

The books have been broadly adapted into TV, Radio and Film with great success, cementing their position as modern day classics of children's fantasy fiction, that due to Pullman's supreme skill and passion as a writer, endure in their appeal to both children and adults.

Books by this Author

Books by Philip Pullman

His Dark Materials, Trilogy:
1995: "Northern Lights"
US: "The Golden Compass"
1997: "The Subtle Knife"
2000 :"The Amber Spyglass"

The Book of Dust,Trilogy:
2017: "La Belle Sauvage" - 2017
2019: "The Secret Commonwealth"
Third book pending.

Other Novels
1990: "The Broken Bridge" - 1990
1995: "The Firework-Maker's Daughter"
1996: "Clockwork"
1999: "I Was a Rat!"
2004: "The Scarecrow and His Servant"
2010: "The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ"
2014: "The Collectors"
2020: "Serpentine" - 2020

Fairy Tales
2012: "Grimm Tales for Young and Old"

Short Stories
2003: "Lyra's Oxford"
2008: "Once Upon a Time in the North" - 2008

Plays:
2006: "The Ruby in the Smoke" (adaptation)
2008: "The Scarecrow and His Servant" (adaptation)
2011: "Frankenstein" (adaptation)

Non-Fiction:
2017: "Daemon Voices: Essays on Storytelling"