Bookwitch

Has anyone noticed that we are keen Philip Pullman fans chez bookwitch? Luckily for us, there is one more thing to make a keen fan extatic, something that trumps even the quiz book format.

I’ve mentioned earlier that there is a guide to Philip’s trilogy called The Elements of His Dark Materials, written by Laurie Frost. In the over five hundred pages of her book Laurie lists everything. And by that I mean everything. People, dæmons, places, worlds, languages, sciences, etc, etc. There is a page reference to every single thing. Now, if you’re not a serious fan of HDM, this may not strike you as very interesting. You may even feel it’s overdoing the enthusiasm somewhat. If so, stop reading now, because it’s only going to get worse.

Laurie is the queen of list makers, much to the delight of us nerds. Yes, I must call myself a nerd here, in spite of my earlier rude comments about Son’s nerdiness. When you like something, it’s an incredible feeling to come across a reference book like this one. Some authors might feel they don’t want their writing dissected and listed like this, but Philip has written the foreword to Laurie’s book and he is full of praise. He also mentions it on his website. He says he uses it himself while writing The Book of Dust.

An example of Laurie’s sense for detail; when Will gets to Oxford he stops and eats at a Burger King. Laurie has (all the way from Alabama) tried to identify which branch of Burger King. More recently she has discussed Summertown cash machines with the Resident IT Consultant. And both the bookwitch and Laurie have expressed an inflated interest in the hornbeam trees in Sunderland Avenue, to the extent we both want to go and have a look. Clearly madness is contagious.

Laurie has maps of Will’s and Lyra’s movements round Oxford, maps of the journey to Bolvangar and Will’s trek through Siberia. In short, she has something on everything. We haven’t yet read every page of her work, as it’s the sort of book you dip into and sample a little bit here and there or, of course, you go and look a specific thing up. But unlike your average encyclopedia this is a book I can see myself reading every word of.

There is an excellent bibliography with plenty of information about shorter pieces of writing of Philip’s that could otherwise be hard to find. Laurie has lists of essays and interviews, websites and fansites. One initially negative aspect of the book were the rather dated photos of Oxford, but I’ve come to the conclusion that they are quite appropriate as Lyra’s Oxford is more like the past anyway.

There will soon be some changes to the book, as a new publisher has taken it on, to coincide with the film and the new editions of HDM. This looks like very good news, but if I were you I’d go and get my copy now, as the very useful page references are rumoured to be on their way out. It is available to order from most bookshops, but in this instance it could be that you’d find it easier shopping with that well known online bookshop. Approximate prices are £10 in the UK and $18 in the US at the moment. And if you are a Pullman fan, or have one in the house, this is the book for you. You’ll be in the best of company.