Philip Pullman Unveils Epic fantasy Trilogy The Book of Dust - The Chapter in His Dark Materials

Philip Pullman has been writing the Book of Dust for a very long time. He has been writing it for several years. He has just recently announced the exciting plans for the publication. 

The new trilogy will be called The Book of Dust and the first volume is set to be released in October of this year by David Fickling.  It has been 17 years since the release of The Amber Spyglass, the last of Pullman’s His Dark Materials novels.

The new book will return to the worlds and characters of His Dark Materials, Pullman said, and heroine Lyra will be pivotal to the new story — but not in the way she was before. 

The first thing Philip Pullman has to say is that Lyra is at the centre of the story. Events involving her open the first chapter, and will close the last. I’ve always wanted to tell the story of how Lyra came to be living at Jordan College and, in thinking about it, I discovered a long story that began when she was a baby and will end when she’s grown up. 

This volume and the next will cover two parts of Lyra’s life: starting at the beginning of her story and returning to her 20 years later.

So, second: is it a prequel? Is it a sequel? It’s neither. In fact, The Book of Dust is… an equel. It doesn’t stand before or after His Dark Materials, but beside it. It’s a different story, but there are settings that readers of His Dark Materials will recognise, and characters they’ve met before. Also, of course, there are some characters who are new to us, including an ordinary boy (a boy we have seen in an earlier part of Lyra’s story, if we were paying attention) who, with Lyra, is caught up in a terrifying adventure that takes him into a new world.

Third: why return to Lyra’s world? Dust. 

Questions about that mysterious and troubling substance were already causing strife 10 years before His Dark Materials, and at the centre of The Book of Dust is the struggle between a despotic and totalitarian organisation, which wants to stifle speculation and enquiry, and those who believe thought and speech should be free. The idea of Dust suffused His Dark Materials. Little by little through that story the idea of what Dust was became clearer and clearer, but I always wanted to return to it and discover more. Questions about our existence are infinitely interesting to me. There’s always more to explore.

Philip Pullman 

I started writing as soon as I could hold a pencil. I loved the feeling of making marks on a piece of paper, but it wasn't until some time later that I learned to connect that pleasure with a quite different pleasure, that of being absorbed in a story. Because I loved stories too - every kind of story, from fairy tales to Superman, from school stories to horror stories. As a matter of fact I still do.

What I like about being published by DFB is that David Fickling loves stories too. He first published a book of mine in 1985, and we're both still going, and that book is still in print; so that must say something for my luck. The DFB list is so varied and so full of good stories that I feel very privileged to be part of it.

Actually, I feel lucky just to be doing what I do every day. If I were to go back fifty years, or more, and ask the little boy I used to be what he most wanted to do when he grew up, I think he'd say "Write stories!" In fact, I know he would. So he started, and he never stopped. There'll be more coming soon.

The Opera Group Presents The Firework Maker's Daughter By Philip Pullman

                                      

An explosive musical adventure based on the story by Philip Pullman 

Lila desperately wants to be a Firework-Maker like her father. But when he refuses to teach her, Lila runs away from home to discover the three gifts of firework making for herself. With the help of her friends, Chulak and Hamlet, the love-sick elephant, Lila faces pirates, tigers and the terrifying Fire-Fiend on her perilous quest. Will Lila find out what the three gifts really mean?

The Firework Maker's Daughter is a new opera by award-winning composer David Bruce and librettist Glyn Maxwell - based on the fairy-tale adventure by acclaimed children's author Philip Pullman. The show is on tour around the UK from 23 March - 1 June. 

Hull Truck - 23-26 March, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield - 30 March 

For more dates and details visit www.fireworkmaker.co.uk 

Special offer! 
Random House are offering a 25% discount on copies of The Firework Maker's Daughter from 1st March until 30th June. This includes FREE postage and packaging within the UK! To buy your copy click Here . Use the promotional code OPERAGROUP2013 to claim your discount.

Philip Pullman - The Adventures of the New Cut Gang - Book Review

  

• Pages - 352
• Published - By David Fickling Books
• Date  - 1st September 2011
• Age - 9+
• Isbn: 978 0 857 560223                  

Thunderbolt, Benny, Bridie and Sharky Bob are a mixed bunch of vagabonds and urchins who come together to form the New Cut Gang in two comic tales of stolen silver, skulduggery and desperadoes.

Fake coins are turning up all over Lambeth and the finger of suspicion is pointing at Thunderbolt's dad - could he really be the forger? The crime-busting New Cut Gang come to the rescue!

And when just two clues - a blob of wax and a Swedish match - are discovered at the scene of a break-in, the children find themselves on the trail of an extremely cunning criminal.

Set in late Victorian London, these two action-packed thrillers have now been put together in a single volume - with new illustrations throughout from Horrible Histories illustrator, Martin Brown.

Back in the day before Philip Pullman was a household name he had already penned two short stories. These were published in the early nineties and were about the Adventures of the New Cut Gang. I actually read one of these short stories sometime later, but before they went out of print. Now, seventeen years on, The New Cut Gang is being brought back to life. The two original stories that were over looked many years ago are now being presented in one book and are available for us to read once more . . . . . . hooray!

The two stories are entitled Thunderbolt's Waxwork and The Gas Fitters' Ball, and are based around a group of kids who come together to form a local gang. They all have a common aim which is to solve crimes by following the clues within their investigative adventures.

Let me begin by introducing you to the gang members of:

• Thunderbolt (otherwise known as Sam) who is the child with the brains and a little bit of brawn too
• The Peretti twins (Angela and Zerlina) who are best described as 'angels of Satan'! They have the amazing talent of getting anybody to do exactly want they want 
• Bridie, who not only has red hair but also the sensible motherly temperament and . . . .
• Sharkie Bob, who is the little monster eater!

They are all highly likable and interesting characters. However, my favourite character from the motley gang is Benny. In my opinion, he let's his imagination run wild and his storytelling too! At times his ideas are very wacky and his actions are even more so. Therefore, he certainly adds a lot of interest to the storyline.

The stories are set in Victorian London which is a favourite period of mine. They portray the atmosphere from around that period including the detailed history and culture of London's East End. They are both touching tales full of period detail and fast-paced action.

Apparently Phillip intended to write half a dozen adventure stories in this series, but he never actually got them to publication because His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass etc) stopped him in his tracks. Whilst I think he can be forgiven, as these made him a global success, I do hope that he will now have the time to write additional adventures. I for one will be interested to continue following the gang's future adventures.