La Belle Sauvage (The Book of Dust Vol.1) - Philip Pullman

Malcolm Polstead's Oxford life has been one of routine, ordinary even. He is happiest playing with his daemon, Asta, in their canoe, La Belle Sauvage. But now as the rain builds, the world around Malcolm and Asta is, it seems set to become increasingly far from ordinary.

Finding himself linked to a baby by the name of Lyra Belacqua, Malcolm is forced to undertake the challenge of his life to make a dangerous journey that will change him and Lyra forever...

Have any of you been watching the BBC dramatisation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. Myself and my DIL have been avid watchers of the series.  It took a couple of goes at watching the first episode for me to get into it but once I realised who all the characters were and  what the deamons meant to their person then it started to make more sense.  It was whilst I was talking to a colleague at the office that I discovered that as well as the trilogy of His Dark Materials that there was also another book The Book of Dust  by the same author a prequel to His Dark Materials which tells the story of Lyra's journey to Jordan College as a baby when the floods had come.

Without giving too much of the story away Malcolm Polstead is an 11 year old boy who goes to school and helps his parents in their public house 'The Trout'. Alice is a 15 year old local girl who helps Malcolm's mother in the kitchen at The Trout and for the most part doesn't have much time for Malcolm. Malcolm likes nothing more than to spend time in his beloved canoe 'La Belle Sauvage' so named after a famous Inn.  He also likes to help the nuns at the local priory and this is where he finds Lyra, the daughter of Mrs Coulter and Lord Asriel. The nuns have been put in charge of Lyra's care in the absence of her parents.  It is the gyptians who forewarn Malcolm of the floods that are due but no one takes any notice of a warning from an 11 year old boy. When the floods come Malcolm with the help of Alice, go the priory to rescue Lyra and so their journey begins. 

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The Book of Dust -La Belle Sauvage is the first in a trilogy of The Book of Dust series.  The Book of Dust Vol 2 (The Secret Commonwealth) was released in October 2019 and continues Lyra's story as a twenty year old women.  The third and final book is yet to be named and a release date set as far as I can tell. 

You have to remember that essentially these books are written for young people and not a 50+ year old women but I did enjoy reading this book and I'm not sure that you would need to know anything about His Dark Materials before reading it. 

I think Philip Pullman has been very clever in writing His Dark Materials trilogy and then writing a separate trilogy of books that go back to the very beginning of Lyra's life. It means that you could read either trilogy without ever reading the second or you could start at the very beginning with this the first part of Lyra's story then His Dark Materials and then The Book of Dust Vol 2 (The Secret Commonwealth) completing her story with Volume three when it is released. 

I bought a copy of The Book of Dust -La Belle Sauvage for my DIL for Christmas. She had no idea there was a prequel to the original series of books and left happily reading it before she left.  I do like it when I feel I have made a good choice of a gift.  With young Freddie to take care of I know her reading time is limited but it just might mean that I can get her the His Dark Materials trilogy for her birthday. I do like to earn my MIL brownie points.

Mx