The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage, Philip Pullman

Pullman’s greatly anticipated return to the world of His Dark Materials hit shelves late last year. The story is set a decade before Northern Lights and focuses on Malcolm Polstead, an intelligent and inquisitive child. He lives and works in his parents’ inn, the Trout, and is friendly with the nuns at Godstow Priory, just across the water. The nuns take in a baby named Lyra under a certain amount of secrecy and Malcolm soon finds himself attached to his young neighbour. His innocent life is shaken up when he sees a stranger lose an acorn and then be confronted by a group of threatening looking men. This leads our young protagonist into a world of intrigue, spies, and alethiometers.

There’s also the problem of Gerard Bonneville, a seemingly friendly man whose three-legged hyena daemon shows his true, dark nature. A scientist and pedophile, he is even witnessed attacking his own daemon, an action that is practically unheard of. When the flood comes and the Priory is badly damaged, Malcolm attempts to take Lyra to safety on his trusty canoe, La Belle Sauvage, with the help of Alice – a churlish employee of the Trout. In their attempt to return Lyra to her father in London they are hounded ruthlessly by Bonneville who wants her for far more sinister purposes. They also have to try to avoid the Consistorial Court of Discipline, but it is Bonneville who is relentless in following them. He becomes an eerie, much-feared figure who the reader will feel great distaste for.

There is a real sense of claustrophobia and distrust in the early parts of the novel with the League of St Alexander giving children power over their elders by reporting them for not toeing the line. As Malcolm comes to understand the complexity of the world around him you feel all the uncertainty with him, never quite sure of whose intentions are honourable. During the flood, although some of the situations occasionally feel a tad far-fetched, the desperation and suffering is vividly written, bringing the struggles that the children face to life. It is all too easy to forget how young they are.

With Pullman’s latest offering you feel you are in safe hands with this experienced and masterful storyteller. Whether you’re a Dark Materials superfan, a general reader, or new to this fictional world, you’re bound to enjoy this thrilling adventure tale with the bigger philosophical and theological preoccupations woven throughout.

Philip Pullman in conversation with Cerys Matthews, London Literature Festival, 20/10/2017

Twenty-two years ago Northern Lights, the first book in Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, was published. Yesterday, the first book in a new trilogy, The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage was published, transporting readers back to the world of Lyra Belacqua, to the great joy of his many fans. When asked how this new series fits into the world of Lyra he claims it could be thought of as a prequel, but he is more inclined to think of it as an equal. After the publication of the final book in His Dark Materials Pullman publicly said the story had ended there and there would be no more. The conversation started with this tonight, asking what changed his mind. He answered that the seed was lodged in his mind with the publication of Lyra’s Oxford in 2003. He knew the story would involve Lyra, but not how. It stayed with him, and finally the world is ready to embrace her return.

Speaking about his writing practice, he told of the importance of poetry, that this was how he first came to writing, in writing bad imitations of Dylan Thomas and Bob Dylan in his youth. He may now have turned his attention to prose but the rhythm of it remains central. He claims to sometimes know the rhythm of the next sentence before he knows what it’s going to say. This is why he cannot write with music on as it disturbs the rhythm of the writing. He spoke also of the many voices that go into making a novel. The voice of the narrator is not that of the author, and the book also has an expected reader, which often of course turns out not to be the actual reader. Pullman describes writing as being a dictator, in control of the characters’ fates, but once it’s out in the world you no longer have control. You don’t know who will read it or how they will respond, and that there is no right or wrong way to read a text. He was adamant that children should be introduced to the magic of reading and not forced to share their responses as is so often the case in primary schools, but to let it stay with them.

Inevitably the conversation turned to religion. His Dark Materials has caused outrage among some religious groups who believe it is about killing God. Pullman is very open about his beliefs, and thinks that ‘the original sin’ is really painting curiosity as a sin. That the Fall happens in everybody’s life during adolescence, this knowledge of good and evil, and it’s important and should be encouraged. He was also asked about his opinions on some of the most well known Christian novelists – C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkein. He has said before that he doesn’t agree with how Lewis concludes the Narnia series, however, today he cited the idea that his books seem more genuine than Tolkein’s in that they have the struggle of faith in them, and that in Tolkein’s there’s never any wavering of intent. This he believes is because Tolkein was a Catholic whereby he had everything theologically sorted, whereas Lewis, as an Irish Protestant, had experience all the associated tumult. He ends with the thought that Tolkein’s works therefore end up feeling somewhat trivial, an unpopular opinion with the audience.

Finally, during the Q&A session there were lots of questions coming in from Twitter regarding the films that never quite made it to the end. Pullman’s explanation for this was that books don’t translate well into films, that if you go to see a film of a book you enjoyed you almost expect to be disappointed. Inevitably huge amounts of detail from the books will be cut to fit into 120 minutes or so, and this is why he believes that long running TV serials such Game of Thrones are a much better way of translating books to screen. To the great delight of the audience he revealed that this kind of project is currently in progress for His Dark Materials.