Publication day for Philip Pullman's THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH: THE BOOK OF DUST VOLUME TWO
Philip Pullman’s THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH is published today by David Fickling Books in association with Penguin Random House in the UK and Random House Children’s in the US, and will subsequently be available in thirty foreign territories worldwide. THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH is the second book in the Book of Dust series, set 20 years after the events of LA BELLE SAUVAGE, and seven years after readers left Lyra and Will Parry on a park bench in Oxford’s Botanic Gardens in THE AMBER SPYGLASS. The book features original new illustrations from Chris Wormell.
1,800 fans will attend sold-out events hosted by Waterstones and Blackwell’s during publication week to launch the eagerly-awaited book. Waterstones hosted the first public event last night on the eve of publication, at London’s iconic Alexandra Palace. The audience enjoyed dramatic readings from special guests including HBO His Dark Materials actors Anne-Marie Duff and Raffiella Chapman, culminating in a Q&A with Pullman hosted by author and executive editor of VICE UK, Zing Tsjeng.
The Secret Commonwealth will also feature on BBC Radio 4 later this year in an abridged reading, with further details announced closer to the broadcast. A primetime television adaptation of His Dark Materials, an eight-part drama produced in Wales by Bad Wolf, will also air on BBC One and HBO, with the first episode to be broadcast in the UK on 3rd November and US on 4th.
“[Pullman] has created a fantasy world, made yet more satisfying in rigour and stylistic elegance. This is a book for getting older with” Guardian, Book of the Week
“The Secret Commonwealth is ablaze with light and life. The writing is exquisite; every sentence sings … To read Pullman is to experience the world refreshed, aglow, in Technicolour” i Magazine