Fan club

It’s not always easy to find time to read. However there is always time for an exceptionally good read and, in my view, the Phillip Pullman Dark Materials trilogy definitely falls into this category.

The trilogy takes us on a thrilling journey. Lyra and Will, the two central characters, encounter rebellious angels, soul-eating spectres, child-catching Gobblers, armoured bears and witch-clans of the Arctic.

In Northern Lights (the first volume) Lyra journeys to the far North to save her best friend and others kidnapped by the “General Oblation Board”. Those kidnapped are taken to the far North to participate in “Dust” experiments where they are severed from their daemons and left to roam the land in a lifeless state.

In the second volume, The Subtle Knife, Lyra journeys to the haunted otherworld Cittágazze where she meets Will Parry.

In the third volume, The Amber Spy Glass, Lyra and Will venture into unspeakable danger. With help from Iorek Byrnison, the armoured bear who appears in the first book, they must journey to a dank and grey-lit world where no living soul has ever gone. The Amber Spy Glass brings the three books to an astonishing conclusion.

It certainly makes a change from thinking about cost plans.