How did I miss this?

I was an avid reader as a child (surprising?). One of my fondest memories is doing the Saturday shop with my mum, and as a treat for good behaviour, getting to go up to the library (it was on the second-floor balcony area of the town centre) and completely immerse myself in the children’s section.

My big loves were, of course, Harry Potter, Series of Unfortunate Events and Goosebumps. I also loved Enid Blyton, Animorphs and anything Jacqueline Wilson. As I got older, I started delving into more of the classics, alongside the next-big-things such as Hunger Games and the Divergent series. And, although I read a lot, I somehow completely and utterly missed the His Dark Materials series. I have a really foggy memory of being at a creative writing masterclass and being introduced to an extract that must have been from the series where we then had to create our own ‘daemons.’ I remember being interested, wondering where the extract came from, but still, it didn’t encourage me to investigate. It isn’t until, as a 23-year-old and moving into my first home with my now-husband, and he unloaded his His Dark Materials books onto the bookshelf that I actually truly realised that this series even existed. It is safe to say my husband was shocked at my lack of knowledge of this beloved series, yet still, it isn’t until lockdown that I have finally been drawn to picking up that first book. Rather than buying new books, I was trying to do the thing where I actually read the books we already have, and I had made a list of all the untouched books on the shelves that I had yet to peruse. I was aware that the book had recently been made into a BBC series, but hadn’t really taken to it, what with my lack of understanding of the world Phillip Pullman had created. I wasn’t invested yet.

The first time I read the book was in the bath about two weeks ago, and I remember just kicking myself and thinking, “How on earth did I miss this?” His Dark Materials would have been right up my street as a kid (and still is). Magical world- check, animals- double check, a strong female protagonist- check. How did I manage to let it slip by? So now, naturally, I have devoured the first book and the first season of the TV series (much prefer the book, as per), and I will be shortly starting the next. I have even gone as far as speculating what my loved one’s daemons might be. I have decided to call on my inner child for the rest of the series, and I am determined to immerse myself with magical worlds as much as I once did.