Immerse yourself in Pullman's dark imagination

Handily, Philip Pullman provides a crib sheet for The Rose Field, the final volume of his Book of Dust trilogy, and thank goodness for that.

- Melanie McDonagh

I never can make out the plots that drive either this trilogy or the previous one, His Dark Materials, both featuring his heroine Lyra. Not that this stops them being a terrific read. Here we learn that the book is "partly a vision. Lyra's world is changing, just as ours is. The power over people's lives once held by old institutions and governments is seeping away and reappearing in another form, that of money, capital, development, commerce, exchange".