“It continues with a big leap of time, a leap of over 20 years, so in the second we see Lyra as a 20-year-old undergraduate. On Wednesday, Pullman said that the story would take a step into the future in the next two novels of The Book of Dust trilogy, as well as sharing that he has already finished writing the second, as-yet unnamed instalment. The author has described the novel as an “equel”, rather than a sequel or prequel, saying that it “doesn’t stand before or after His Dark Materials, but beside it”. Her very existence forms one of the central McGuffins of the plot,” said Pullman. “Lyra is a baby, and being a baby, she is not able to speak or walk, she hasn’t got very much agency, but she’s certainly at the centre of the action. Returning old favourites include Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon, her father Lord Asriel and mother Mrs Coulter, and Farder Coram. As well as the 11-year-old Malcolm Polstead, his daemon Asta and his canoe, La Belle Sauvage, who become Lyra’s protectors after a huge flood, Pullman also introduces a range of new characters to the story, including alethiometer specialist Dr Hannah Relf and the villainous Gerard Bonneville. The novel – which tells the story of how his heroine Lyra came to be living at Oxford’s fictional Jordan College in Northern Lights – has been awaited by fans since The Amber Spyglass was published in 2000.

It is expected to be one of the year’s biggest sellers, after it topped Amazon’s charts when it was announced in February and been tipped by booksellers to head the bestseller lists this Christmas. “It is a darker book, I don’t deny that, but that’s the story that came to me and wanted to be told.” La Belle Sauvage’s publication is being marked with special late openings, parties, signings and read-alongs in bookshops around the UK. Quipping that novel, the first in The Book of Dust trilogy, should be called “His Darker Materials”, Pullman said that as an author, “I’ve got older and perhaps more cynical, closer to despair”.

La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman