Philip Pullman's celebrated trilogy His Dark Materials has been translated into 40 languages and sold over four million copies worldwide. All three books with their astonishing characters and richly complex plots will shortly become a major new BBC TV series. In this second, revised edition of Darkness Visible, leading authority on children's literature Nicholas Tucker writes about the man he knows as a friend. He unpacks and examines the sources Pullman drew on for his masterpiece, from poets Milton and Blake to comic books and radio dramas. For while His Dark Materials can be enjoyed as a page-turning saga lit by an extraordinary imagination, it is also packed with literary references which raise important questions about our lives and even our ultimate place in the universe. Written for the general reader of whatever age, and including family photographs and illustrations, Darkness Visible offers a unique exploration of Pullman's great work while discussing the controversies it has given rise to in the decade following its publication.