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  • Published: 29 September 2020
  • ISBN: 9780241373354
  • Imprint: Penguin and David Fickling Books
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 736
  • RRP: $19.99

The Secret Commonwealth: The Book of Dust Volume Two

From the world of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials - now a major BBC series




Master storyteller Philip Pullman continues the incredible journey of Lyra Silvertongue in the second volume of The Book of Dust

Lyra Silvertongue is now studying at St Sophia's College, Oxford, with her daemon Pantalaimon.

They are not getting on. Lyra is questioning everything she once held dear. Pan misses the impulsiveness of their youth.

When an act of terrible violence breaks the peace of the Oxford night, Lyra and Pan's relationship reaches a crisis and they are drawn, far from home, into the dangerous factions of a world they had no idea existed.

  • Published: 29 September 2020
  • ISBN: 9780241373354
  • Imprint: Penguin and David Fickling Books
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 736
  • RRP: $19.99

About the authors

Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman was born in Norwich and educated in England, Zimbabwe, Australia and Wales. He studied English at Exeter College, Oxford.

His first children's book, Count Karlstein, was published in 1982. To date, he has published thirty-three books, read by children and adults alike. His most famous work is the His Dark Materials trilogy. These books have been honoured by several prizes including the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children's Book Prize, and (for The Amber Spyglass) the Whitbread Book of the Year Award - the first time that prize had been given to a children's book. Pullman has received numerous other awards, including the Eleanor Farjeon Award and the Astrid Lindgren Award. He was knighted in the 2019 New Year's Honours List for Services to Literature.

Christopher Wormell

Chris Wormell is a self-taught artist, and the winner of the Ragazza Prize at Bologna in 1991. Two Frogs won the Nestlé Bronze Award, Molly and the Night Monster was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal and One Smart Fish won the Booktrust Early Years Awards Best Picture Book. His books include George and the Dragon and The Big Ugly Monster and the Little Stone Rabbit which was recently adapted into a stage play. Chris lives in North London with his wife and children.

Praise for The Secret Commonwealth: The Book of Dust Volume Two

REVIEWS FOR LA BELLE SAUVAGE: THE BOOK OF DUST VOLUME ONE: Fans of His Dark Materials will find themselves joyfully immersed in a familiar world . . . meanwhile, awaiting first-time readers is all the pleasure of commencing their own journey into this most captivating of universes at the very beginning of Lyra's story

Independent

No one else writes like Pullman . . . entirely worth the 17-year wait

Imogen Russell Williams, Metro

A rich, imaginative, vividly characterised rite-of-passage tale

Nicolette Jones, The Sunday Times

High-octane adventure accompanies ingenious plotting

The Times

[Pullman] has created a fantasy world, made yet more satisfying in rigour and stylistic elegance. This is a book for getting older with

Guardian, Book of the Week

The Secret Commonwealth is ablaze with light and life. The writing is exquisite; every sentence sings ... To read Pullman is to experience the world refreshed, aglow, in Technicolour

Independent

Pullman's story is still thought-provoking ... This book elegantly weaves in live issues, from Europe's refugee crisis to facts in the post-truth era. And Pullman's prose is rewarding as ever

The Times

A long, taxing, complex journey, laced with beauty, terror and philosophy

Metro

As ever, Pullman's story is complex and vast but home to some of the finest storytelling in the 21st century. Revel in whole new worlds and enjoy one of literature's most wonderful heroines before she comes to HBO and the BBC

Stylist

Pullman is confronting readers with the horrors of our own world reflected back at us. In The Secret Commonwealth he creates a fearful symmetry

The Herald

The novel gallops forward, full of danger, delight and surprise. Nearly miraculous, it seems, is Pullman's ability to sketch character, place and motive in just a few lines

New Statesman

Engrossing

Financial Times

Pullman has created a fantasy world, made yet more satisfying in this new volume. This is a book for getting older with

Guardian

Lyra is all grown up in a rich, vivid sequel

Telegraph

REVIEWS FOR LA BELLE SAUVAGE: THE BOOK OF DUST VOLUME ONE: Fans of His Dark Materials will find themselves joyfully immersed in a familiar world . . . meanwhile, awaiting first-time readers is all the pleasure of commencing their own journey into this most captivating of universes at the very beginning of Lyra's story,No one else writes like Pullman . . . entirely worth the 17-year wait,A rich, imaginative, vividly characterised rite-of-passage tale,High-octane adventure accompanies ingenious plotting

REVIEWS FOR LA BELLE SAUVAGE: THE BOOK OF DUST VOLUME ONE: Fans of His Dark Materials will find themselves joyfully immersed in a familiar world . . . meanwhile, awaiting first-time readers is all the pleasure of commencing their own journey into this most captivating of universes at the very beginning of Lyra's story,No one else writes like Pullman . . . entirely worth the 17-year wait,A rich, imaginative, vividly characterised rite-of-passage tale,High-octane adventure accompanies ingenious plotting,[Pullman] has created a fantasy world, made yet more satisfying in rigour and stylistic elegance. This is a book for getting older with,The Secret Commonwealth is ablaze with light and life. The writing is exquisite; every sentence sings ... To read Pullman is to experience the world refreshed, aglow, in Technicolour,Pullman's story is still thought-provoking ... This book elegantly weaves in live issues, from Europe's refugee crisis to facts in the post-truth era. And Pullman's prose is rewarding as ever,A long, taxing, complex journey, laced with beauty, terror and philosophy,As ever, Pullman's story is complex and vast but home to some of the finest storytelling in the 21st century. Revel in whole new worlds and enjoy one of literature's most wonderful heroines before she comes to HBO and the BBC,Pullman is confronting readers with the horrors of our own world reflected back at us. In The Secret Commonwealth he creates a fearful symmetry,The novel gallops forward, full of danger, delight and surprise. Nearly miraculous, it seems, is Pullman's ability to sketch character, place and motive in just a few lines,Engrossing,Pullman has created a fantasy world, made yet more satisfying in this new volume. This is a book for getting older with,Lyra is all grown up in a rich, vivid sequel