The Philip Pullman endorsed His Dark Materials guide book, The Definitive Guide to Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, by American scholar Laurie Frost, is due to be fully released in the UK and Ireland this June by Scholastic.
It was previously available from Fell Press and since last November from Scholastic but only as an exclusive to the UK book chain Waterstone’s, but from June forwards all readers in the UK and Ireland will be able to get their hands on their very own copy of the book. American readers can still buy the Fell Press edition and there should hopefully be a revised edition on the way.
The latest edition will come with a number of revisions by the author, along with a fresh new binding. Initially it will be released only in hard back, with ribbons and tail-bands and a particularly eye-catching cover design (which you can see on the right). Philip Pullman is reported to be impressed by the new edition. The following will feature on the back cover of the book:
“The extraordinary world of Philip Pullman’s bestselling trilogy is explored in all the detail any fan of the books will ever need. With in-depth, chapter-referenced sections on characters, places, creatures, sciences, languages, and much more, this brilliant work by Laurie Frost has become the official – and definitive – reference guide to Pullman’s books.”
Please note, contrary to what we wrote earlier this week, the new edition will not be released in the USA this June. Apologies if we misled anybody!
I’m gonna buy that definitely! It sounds great!
Hm, that looks interesting.
Darn it! I’ve already got this one! This always happens to me; I buy something, then they come out with a new-and-improved version months later. Ah, well…
I’m surprised to hear that anyone in the US was having trouble finding it before; I picked a copy up in my local Hastings.
I’ll probably not buy it,even though I want to,because it’ll be hard to get it where I live [Ireland].
Amazon.co.uk will deliver to Ireland.
I’m in Ireland too, but I’lle try to find that book, because it looks really good!
This sounds pretty good, I don’t usually buy Guides to book series, by as Pullman has supported this one, it seems like it might be worth a read.
I hope it gets an Australian release
Kincuri, I ordered in the first edition through Readings bookstore in Ringwood (Melbourne) and had it within about 3-4 weeks, as I remember. Think it cost me about $40, well worth it. This new hardback would most likely be dearer, and if I didn’t already have the first edition, would get this. Don’t think you would be disappointed.
Consider it (they seem to have dropped “Elements” from the title) an encyclopaedia of the HDM worlds, and whilst Laurie Frost does not add any “facts” as such, she does occasionally speculate on what might hsve been. She is also good at bringing together disparate items and putting them together in a way that may not have occured to the casual reader.
An interesting fact from the entry on Lee Scoresby – his surname came from an arctic explorer, and an eastern suburb of Melbourne was named after him. (The explorer of course!)
It’s a good way to enter the HDM worlds once more without re-reading the books again!
I wouldn’t be allowed to buy a book on Amazon.But I’ll have a good look for the book.
I went into Dymocks today and they had copies! I don’t know if I want to hold out for the new cover and revised edition.
Having flicked through it though, it does look like an awesome guide book, it has heaps of info
Actually,it says in the article that it is availible in Ireland,I didn’t really read it right
Or was it edited?