Men pass in front of our eyes like butterflies, creatures of a brief season. We love them; they are brave, proud, beautiful, clever; and they die almost at once. They die so soon that our hearts are continually racked with pain.

Pullman has narrated unabridged audiobooks of the three main novels in His Dark Materials. " Pullman chose some more obscure tales too. Literary critic Alan Jacobs (of Wheaton College) said that in His Dark Materials Pullman replaced the theist world-view of John Milton's Paradise Lost with a Rousseauist one.

title The Golden Compass. For the 70th anniversary of the Medal it was named one of the top ten winning works by a panel composing the ballot for a public election of the all-time favourite. He is the author of several best-selling books most notably the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials and the fictionalised biography of Jesus The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ.