Why The Amber Spyglass is the only children’s book nominated for The Booker Prize
The Booker Prize PodcastShow Notes
Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass is the third and concluding volume of the epic His Dark Materials trilogy – and might just be the only children’s book ever nominated for The Booker Prize. The story follows the journey of Lyra – a young girl destined to bring about unfathomable change in her world and beyond. It was longlisted for The Booker Prize in 2001, alongside Ian McEwan’s Atonement, David Mitchell’s number9dream and that year’s winner, Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang.
In this episode, Jo and James talk about:
The animal forms their daemons would take
A brief – and slightly spoiler-y – summary of what happens in The Amber Spyglass, as well as the previous books in the trilogy
Whether The Amber Spyglass is really a children's book
The literature that has inspired His Dark Materials
Whether more children's books should be in contention for The Booker Prize
The Booker Clinic: Books to rediscover the joys of reading
Books discussed in this episode:
Paradise Lost by John Milton
Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer
Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
The books of Agatha Christie
The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
The books of Raymond Chandler
Four Bare Legs in a Bed by Helen Simpson
The Patrick Melrose novels by Edward St. Aubyn
A full transcript of the episode is available on our website here.
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