Philip Womack

Worlds Apart

The Secret Commonwealth: The Book of Dust, Volume Two

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David Fickling Books/Penguin 704pp £20 order from our bookshop

Bearmouth

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Pushkin Children’s 320pp £12.99 order from our bookshop

Beyond Platform 13

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Macmillan Children’s 256pp £6.99 order from our bookshop
 

At the heart of Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights, which first lit up our imaginations over twenty years ago, is the exceptionally close bond between the heroine, Lyra, and her dæmon, Pantalaimon (a dæmon, for those not versed in Pullmanic lore, is an external manifestation of a human’s soul that takes animal form and has its own thoughts). Where Lyra was impulsive, Pan was there to counsel; when she was lonely, his soft fur was a comfort. For any child, having grown up clutching a soft toy or not, this was the most electric component of an extraordinary piece of work, bringing Pullman’s universe alive in a way that our own sad world of tax returns and bus stops never quite seemed to be.

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