Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman is a British author who is best known for his young adult novels, most of which can be classed under the genre of fantasy fiction. Although he is a prolific writer with a long line of published books to his name, his most famous works are Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass, which together comprise the His Dark Materials trilogy. Both critically and commercially successful, many of Philip Pullman’s novels have been adapted for television as well as the silver screen.

The best place to start is the NHB Modern Plays series, the earliest of Philip Pullman's multi-book series: it opens with Great Expectations (1861) and runs to 131 books across 1861–2025, ending with James V: Katherine (2025). Philip Pullman's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Philip Pullman has 251 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1861 and 2025. 217 of them belong to 10 named series — the largest being the NHB Modern Plays series with 131 books — and 34 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Philip Pullman's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are NHB Modern Plays (1861–2025, 131 books), Dramascripts (1915–2017, 56 books) and Sally Lockhart (1985–1994, 4 books), plus 7 more.

This guide splits Philip Pullman's 251 books into 10 named series and 34 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: NHB Modern Plays (131 books, 1861–2025); Dramascripts (56 books, 1915–2017); His Dark Materials (8 books, 1995–2022); Red Hot Reads (6 books, 1996–1999); New Cut Gang (4 books, 1994–2012), plus 5 further series.