His Dark Materials

Lyra is on a mission to rescue her friend Roger and find her father. Alongside her on a perilous journey to the Arctic are her daemon, a friendly armoured bear and a witch-queen.

His Dark Materials is a fantasy trilogy following the adventures of scruffy and clever Lyra Belacqua and serious and brave Will Parry. Lyra and Will may be just kids, but it’s too late now. They’re already caught up in a life-or-death struggle to save the Cosmos.

While originally marketed at teenage readers, Philip Pullman's modern masterpiece has broken free to enrapture audiences across the generations. His best-selling series is sprinkled with physics, philosophy and theology, with the original inspiration for the book taken from John Milton's 17th-century epic poem Paradise Lost.

His Dark Materials has had a controversial past, with certain paragraphs censored in some markets and the work being branded 'atheism for kids' by religious groups.

The author also takes on the role of narrator for the series, with his intoxicating tone joined by a huge cast including audiobook luminaries such as Jill Shilling, Rupert Degas, Alison Dowling and Stephen Thorne. The full cast helps the listener navigate through the series, weaving each character into the narrative.

His Dark Materials series has won numerous book awards. Northern Lights has been named one of The Observer’s 100 best novels of all time, one of Time’s 100 Best Young-Adult Books of All Time and one of the BBC's 100 most influential novels. The Amber Spyglass was the first 'children's literature' book to win the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year award.

The success of His Dark Materials has spawned various spin-offs and sequels, a 2013 stage show and a 2007 feature film called The Golden Compass (the US name for the original book). A BBC TV adaptation based on the books premiered in 2019.