Serpentine – Interesting Literature

In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle enjoys a slim but beautifully illustrated short from the world(s) of His Dark Materials

Philip Pullman’s new book, Serpentine, is not a novel, nor even a novella. Nor is it technically new: it dates from 2004, although it is only being published now. The action of this very short book (it’s barely 70 pages, with numerous illustrations) takes place just after the events of the original trilogy, His Dark Materials, and before the events of The Secret Commonwealth, the second novel in Pullman’s new trilogy, The Book of Dust.