Philip Pullman announces finale to The Book Of Dust trilogy

Irish Examiner

29-04-2025

Author Philip Pullman has announced the final volume in his best-selling series The Book Of Dust.
The Rose Field will be released on October 23, 30 years after Pullman introduced Lyra Belacqua and her daemon Pantalaimon in the novel Northern Lights, part of the His Dark Materials trilogy.
Welsh actor Michael Sheen narrated the first two volumes of The Book Of Dust and will return to narrate the final book.
I think of The Rose Field as partly a thriller and partly a bildungsroman: a story of psychological, moral and emotional growth
Pullman, 78, said: 'I think of The Rose Field as partly a thriller and partly a bildungsroman: a story of psychological, moral and emotional growth.
'But it's also a vision. Lyra's world is changing, just as ours is. The power over people's lives once held by old institutions and governments is seeping away and reappearing in another form: that of money, capital, development, commerce, exchange.
'Over a long and dangerous journey searching for her daemon Pan and with him her lost imagination, Lyra comes to discover a new understanding of the world: that this change affects everything, from the way roads are built to the relationship people have with their deepest selves.
'It may be other things too, but I hope that fundamentally and permanently The Rose Field will be read as a story.
'I think of myself as a storyteller rather than a novelist or a writer of literary fiction, belonging among the tellers of folk tales, fairy tales, ballads and myths.'
In the second book in the series, The Secret Commonwealth, Lyra was alone in the ruins of a deserted city and her daemon Pantalaimon had run from her.
Michael Sheen will voice the audio book of The Rose Field (Ian West/PA)
In The Rose Field Lyra's quest converges with Malcolm Polstead, an academic and friend of Lyra's, and they must take help from spies and thieves, gryphons and witches while the world is aflame.
Lyra featured in the His Dark Materials trilogy, which included The Subtle Knife, published in 1997, and The Amber Spyglass, published in 2000, as well as Northern Lights.
His Dark Materials was turned into a TV series featuring Luther star Ruth Wilson, who has narrated new audio editions of the books in celebration of 30 years.
Fantasy adventure film The Golden Compass, released in 2007 and starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, was based on Northern Lights.
Francesca Dow, managing director at Penguin Random House Children's (UK), said: 'In the six years since The Secret Commonwealth was published, we know that hundreds of thousands of readers have been desperate to return – for the final time – to Lyra and her world.
'That wait will soon be over and from the first pages of The Rose Field, those readers will find that this world, and Lyra herself, are changing.
'This is storytelling at its most brilliant, set against a vast, extraordinary canvas, an intricate and most magical story about what it is to be human.
'It is also a gripping quest that surprises and delights at every twist and turn, a true page-turner. I could not put it down and I could not bear for it to end.'
She added: 'Readers around the globe will share in my belief: that we owe Philip Pullman – the storyteller of storytellers – our heartfelt thanks for giving us the opportunity to meet Lyra, and journey with her, and see her grow up into a fearless and endlessly fascinating woman.'
The Rose Field: The Book Of Dust Volume Three will be published in hardback, trade paperback, ebook and audiobook on October 23 2025 by David Fickling Books in association with Penguin Random House in the UK, featuring original new illustrations from Chris Wormell.