Philip Pullman announces new Book of Dust trilogy as follow-up to His Dark Materials

Philip Pullman
Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra and Nicole Kidman as Mrs Coulter in The Golden Compass, an adaptation of Philip Pullman's Northern Lights Credit: Laurie Sparham/New Line Cinema

Philip Pullman is to publish a new trilogy, The Book of Dust, as a follow-up to His Dark Materials. The first volume will be released in October and is certain to be one of the year’s biggest sellers.

The trilogy will revisit the heroine, Lyra Belacqua, and trace her life from birth to adulthood. There will also be a new hero - a boy who has appeared in Lyra's world before, but whose identity is being kept under wraps as a guessing game for fans.

“What can I tell you about it? The first thing to say is that Lyra is at the centre of the story,” Pullman said.

It has been 17 years since the release of The Amber Spyglass, the last of the His Dark Materials novels. Pullman suggested last year that The Book of Dust could stretch to two volumes, but the announcement of a trilogy will delight fans.

It will also give the author a chance to cut his hair, which he had vowed not to do until the book was done. “When I cut my ponytail off I shall put it in a zip-lock bag and give it to the Bodleian,” he joked last year.

Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman will publish the first volume of The Book of Dust in October Credit: Clara Molden for The Telegraph

The first volume of The Book of Dust, as yet untitled, is set 10 years before Northern Lights and explains how Lyra came to live at Jordan College.

“Is it a prequel? Is it a sequel? It’s neither. In fact, The Book of Dust is… an ‘equel’,” he said. “It doesn’t stand before or after His Dark Materials, but beside it.

“It’s a different story, but there are settings that readers of His Dark Materials will recognise, and characters they’ve met before. Also, of course, there are some characters who are new to us, including an ordinary boy (a boy we have seen in an earlier part of Lyra’s story, if we were paying attention) who, with Lyra, is caught up in a terrifying adventure that takes him into a new world.”

His Dark Materials began with Northern Lights in 1995, followed by The Subtle Knife in 1997 and The Golden Compass in 2000. The trilogy has sold 17.5 million copies in more than 40 languages.

Pullman said: “I know from their letters and tweets that my readers have been waiting patiently (mostly) for The Book of Dust for a long time. It gives me great pleasure and some excitement at last to satisfy their curiosity (and mine) about this book.

“The first thing to say is that Lyra is at the centre of the story. Events involving her open the first chapter, and will close the last. I’ve always wanted to tell the story of how Lyra came to be living at Jordan College and, in thinking about it, I discovered a long story that began when she was a baby and will end when she’s grown up.

“This volume and the next will cover two parts of Lyra’s life: starting at the beginning of her story and returning to her 20 years later.”

Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman with his 2002 Whitbread Book Award winner, The Amber Spyglass Credit: Geoff Pugh for The Telegraph

At the centre of The Book of Dust is “the struggle between a despotic and totalitarian organisation, which wants to stifle speculation and enquiry, and those who believe thought and speech should be free.”

The book will be published by Penguin Random House Children’s and David Fickling Books in the UK.

James Daunt, managing director of Waterstones, said: “The importance of Philip Pullman to the cause of reading cannot be overstated.

“The generations still in their first quarter century read first Harry Potter, then the complex, gripping and provocative His Dark Materials. Other books, other authors, make claims and bring huge rewards, but these two imprint on everyone who calls themselves a reader, and it is Philip who cements the sophisticated, unique pleasures of reading.

“As we account for the vigour of reading in a digital age, we need look no further. It is exhilarating to anticipate The Book of Dust, and in this I speak for those of all ages.”

Next year will see a BBC One adaptation of His Dark Materials, with a screenplay by Jack Thorne, who was behind Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. A film adaptation of Northern Lights, called The Golden Compass, was released in 2007 with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. It was a critical and box office flop.

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