You can forget Harry Potter - if it’s adult/child cross over novels, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials is peerless. It’s on a different level altogether to the Hogwarts sagas - it’s like comparing a mediocre soap opera to Shakespeare.

Sure, Pullman’s trilogy has its fair share of rollicking adventure and suspense - witches, armoured and fearsome polar bears, a knife that can cut through to different worlds, angels and Texan balloonists, to name a few. But there are many deep and allegorical layers involving physics, metaphysics, theology and philosophy, not to mention the nature of man-made religions.

I spotted on Russell Beattie’s blog (that’s the best link to mobile I can come up with, I’m afraid) that a new website had been built to celebrate and promote the release of the forthcoming movie “The Golden Compass”, which is based on the first book in the trilogy. Part of the website allows you to create your own dæmon, which is one of the central conceits of the work and you can see mine below.

A person’s dæmon is a creature that’s visible to others and represents your personality, or perhaps “soul”. A dæmon changes constantly in a child, before becoming fixed in adult form, just as the child’s personality settles. As an example, someone with a dog dæmon might be naturally subservient and respectful of authority (most servants have dog dæmons), whereas a cat dæmon, will be a sign of independence.

In our world, we all have dæmons, but they’re invisible - although with special training, it is possible to see them here too. So get practicing.

Anyway, my dæmon, is Theonilla, a female tiger (dæmons are usually of the opposite genders) who is assertive, modest, shy, solitary and proud, apparently.

What’s yours? I sense the start of a blogging meme here, he wrote assertively, modestly, shyly and proudly, while sitting alone.