His Dark Materials on audio

It was good to see Sue Arnold in the Guardian on Saturday recommending the, by now, oldish unabridged reading of His Dark Materials. Unlike many “plain” readings, this is better still. Philip Pullman himself reads the story, with actors reading the dialogue. This is where we, at least, have formed our opinion of how Lyra should speak. And the audio Iorek is far superior to the film Iorek.

We first listened to this in the car driving to Scotland for Christmas about eight years ago. It was just right for the trip north and the return home again. The very last bit had to be finished as we unpacked the car. It also taught us not to underestimate our seven-year-old. We had assumed that she was too young to understand or enjoy the book. When she insisted on catching up with what she missed when asleep taught us the value of audio books. They really make books very accessible.