The new edition of Paradise Lost - we love it.
Great news for all you Miltonians out there: we've just taken delivery of an extremely handsome new edition of Paradise Lost, complete with illustrations from the 1688 edition of the poem and a lengthy introduction and summaries of each of the 12 books by the great man's highest-profile fan, Philip Pullman.

It's well-known that Philip Pullman based his acclaimed trilogy, His Dark Materials, on Milton's work, retelling the fundamental story of humanity's loss of innocence for a modern audience. The title of his trilogy, in fact, is borrowed from a line in Book II of Paradise Lost, when Satan is looking out from the gates of hell across the abyss towards Earth:

Into this wild abyss, The womb of nature and perhaps her grave, Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, But all these in their pregnant causes mixed Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight, Unless the almighty maker them ordain His dark materials to create more worlds …

His very personal introduction includes an anecdote about a country squire, a tribute to his 'A' level teacher, Miss Enid Jones, and a word on the virtue of reading the poem aloud - a virtue which he demonstrated at an event at London's South Bank Centre on Saturday night. Ever at home with public speaking, he began a discussion on Milton with Tom Paulin and Milton scholar Sharon Achinstein with a slightly edited version of his introduction, mesmerising the audience with his delivery of Milton's - and his own - words. Those who missed the live act can of course pick up a copy of the book to find out what Pullman had to say - it comes with the Vulture's stamp of approval.