Leaving Home by Mark Haddon is the author’s memoir about his parents and growing up in Northampton in the 1970s. It is a lavishly illustrated book – Haddon is a talented artist as well as an author – which has the feel of a slightly chaotic scrapbook. Told in short episodes in non-chronological order, he dissects his repressed family life and the emotional neglect he suffered alongside his younger sister, Fiona, with devastating effect. He repeatedly apologises for what he describes as a catastrophically poor memory, yet movingly conveys the psychological profiles of his parents and the lasting impact of his upbringing on his physical and mental health up to the present day. Haddon is best known for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and his memoir is just as deeply empathetic and unique in format. Many thanks to Random House Vintage Books for sending me a review copy via NetGalley (although I would recommend reading this in hard copy if possible to fully appreciate the illustrations). Continue reading
Tag Archives: Philip Pullman
Books I Read in February 2026
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The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman
My main read over Christmas was ‘The Secret Commonwealth’ by Philip Pullman, the second volume in the Book of Dust trilogy following La Belle Sauvage two years ago. ‘La Belle Sauvage’ was essentially a prequel to the His Dark Materials trilogy in which we saw Lyra as a baby. The events in ‘The Secret Commonwealth’ take place about seven years after the end of that trilogy with Lyra now a 20-year-old undergraduate in Oxford. It opens with the murder of a botanist who had recently returned from a research trip to central Asia studying the effects of rose oil. The web of intrigue which follows this murder has implications for the authoritarian rule of the Magisterium and leads to Lyra and Malcolm undertaking separate journeys across Europe through to Turkey and Syria. Continue reading
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La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
I reread the His Dark Materials trilogy in July in anticipation of the release last month of the first volume of the new Book of Dust trilogy by Philip Pullman which he describes as an “equel” to stand alongside ‘His Dark Materials’ as neither a prequel or a sequel. This particular volume is set before the events in ‘His Dark Materials’ in Lyra’s universe when she is a baby and features 11-year-old Malcolm Polstead, son of a local pub landlord, who ends up supplying information to a resistance group attempting to subvert the Magisterium, a powerful church authority. With the help of Alice, an older girl who works at the pub with him, and his trusty canoe named La Belle Sauvage, they seek to protect baby Lyra from the church, and specifically from the clutches of Gerard Bonneville and Lyra’s mother, Mrs Coulter. Continue reading
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His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
This month, I’ve broken the habit of a (five-year blogging) lifetime and reread the ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy by Philip Pullman ahead of the publication of ‘La Belle Sauvage’, the first volume of the Book of Dust trilogy later this year. The first book in the series ‘Northern Lights’ is set in a parallel universe similar to ours but different in many ways and introduces twelve-year-old Lyra Belacqua and her dæmon companion Pantalaimon who travel to the North Pole to rescue her friend Roger from the Gobblers who are carrying out experiments on children. In ‘The Subtle Knife’ and ‘The Amber Spyglass’, Lyra meets Will Parry and they travel between different universes including our own in pursuit of the meaning of Dust. Continue reading
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