A couple more books at bedtime

This post is the fourth in a rather drawn-out series of the same name, and like its predecessors looks back at some of the books I’ve read over the last year or so. There’s much to be said about “a book at bedtime,” especially as one can lose oneself in another word, before drifting off into a restful sleep. Climbing into bed, and snuggling down under the covers, with just enough room to hold and read a book, is certainly a good way to relax and to forget about the trials and tribulations of the day just passed.

My most recent “Book at Bedtime” post appeared back in February 2024,  and covered one lengthy work of fiction - "Tom Jones", by Henry Fielding, plus one, non-fiction volume entitled, the "English Pub". Paul Jennings's history of the English pub is essential reading for all those who enjoy visiting and spending time in, what is definitely the UK's gift to the civilised world. Following that I polished off "Cask", Des de Moor's equally definitive book on cask beer, yet another gift from Britain, even though most of the world has turned it back on this uniquely British way of brewing, keeping and serving,beer. Less controversial, but no less a joy to read, is Adrian Tierney Jones's "A Pub For All Seasons".   

 Back to the present, and the book I’m reading at the moment, is book five of a six-book series, and I'm getting close to finishing that particular volume. What I'm about to write concerns a common thread, that runs between the books of what began as a three-volume series, and one that I first became acquainted with, 20 or so years ago. 

I expect that some of you will have heard of the “His Dark Materials” series, written by acclaimed fantasy author, Philip Pullman. It was a customer at my old off-licence, who first made me aware of this trilogy, and sometime after our conversation about this connected set of novels, I came across the first book in the series, in a charity shop. Tonbridge’s numerous second-hand shops were a rich source of both novels and CD’s, and back in those straitened times, when money was rather "tight", and provided some welcome relief to being “wedded” to my workplace.

“Northern Lights” was the title of the first book in the “His Dark Materials” series, and as my customer friend had hinted, it proved a gripping read. My weekly forays into the world of charity shops, eventually unearthed the sequels – “The Subtle Knife”, and “The Amber Spyglass”, but I’ve a feeling that I didn’t finish the series until I was gainfully employed in my current job. I found all three novels enthralling, with their intricate plot-lines, set against a background of familiar and not so familiar settings. They combine elements of adventure, fantasy which allow the reader to question the nature of authority and the universe itself.

The most interesting aspect is that whilst the stories are set in Oxford (the familiar), it is an Oxford that exists in a parallel universe, with subtle differences to our own world. In Phillip Pulman’s alternative Oxford (and other familiar places), people have animal companions called daemons which, in effect, are physical manifestations of a person’s soul. This means they can communicate with their human “owners”. The principle characters are Lyra and Will, both in their early teens, but belonging to different universes. Lyra inhabits the slightly strange, alternative Oxford, whereas Will’s Oxford belongs very much in our own, early 21^st century Britain. The way their paths first cross, and their lives become intertwined, forms the background to the trilogy, although there are also some fascinating diversions.

Following the success of “His Dark Materials”, Pullman started writing a follow-on series, entitled "The Book of Dust”. It is a sequel with a difference, because the first novel, “La Belle Sauvage”, serves as the prequel to the original trilogy, whilst the second book, “The Secret Commonwealth”, picks up the story, years later, when Lyra, who is now a young adult, embarks on a perilous journey of her own, traveling across Europe in search of her estranged daemon, Pantalaimon. Hot on her heels are agents of the Magisterium, the sinister and all-powerful religious body, that was first encountered in “Northern Lights”. This is the 686-page book I am reading at the moment, and whilst I’m nearing the end, it’s the type of novel you don’t want to finish.

All is not lost though, because the “Rose Field”, the final novel in this particular trilogy, is due for publication in the autumn (23^rd October). Pullman, who is 78, is reported as being "relieved" to have "come out of the end alive and able to see this final part of his six-book series, being made into a book and published". I can’t wait to purchase a copy, and get stuck into the novel.

Footnote: just to confuse matters, the American publishers of the first three books, decided to rename "Northern Lights" as the "Golden Compass". The latter happened to be Pullman's original title for the work, so perhaps we can excuse them, in this instance.