The Oxford Mail spoke to Philip Pullman at the London premiere of The Golden Compass and has more details of upcoming His Dark Materials releases. The Book of Dust is forecast to be finished by 2009 but in the meantime, fans can look forward to Once Upon a Time in the North, the trilogy’s second companion book, due out 3rd April 2008. Like Lyra’s Oxford, it will be illustrated by John Lawrence and include extra fold outs. The April release will coincide with the film’s DVD release as well as the Oxford Literary Festival. Fans can also look forward to a little green book in the future about Will. Read more.
French fansite and community member Cittagazze first revealed this release in September with a press release from David Fickling Books following quickly. Said Pullman of writing the book, “Writing this story was a matter of pure enjoyment. The two characters at the heart of it, Lee Scoresby and Iorek Byrnison, were old comrades-in-arms when Lyra met them first in Northern Lights. It was obvious that they had a history, and it was my son Jamie who first suggested that I should write about it.”
There are a few more details about the forthcoming book in the press release sent out by the US publisher, Random House, this past September. I’ve got it on my blog: http://medinger.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/new-pullman-book-to-be-published-by-david-fickling-books-uk-and-alfred-a-knopf-us/
Oh no, the more the merrier 😉
thanks monica, i’ve updated the info with a link to the press release.
DVD release in April? Any news on the fate of the sequels?
“Once Upon a Time in the North is a companion volume to Lyra’s Oxford (though about double the length of that story) and, like that work, set in Lyra Belacqua’s world and not our own.”
Yes! Double the length. I wonder if it will have extras, though. Maybe a map of the north…
extras yes, but i don’t think we know what they are yet. double length and probably a more interesting story yay!
um… this really isn’t the right place for this but since the forums aren’t up yet i’ll put it here
Cinematical has a ‘Golden Compass – book to film comparison’ up at their site. It’s interesting – quite a good read…
–> http://www.avclub.com/content/blog/book_vs_film_the_golden_compass
🙂
Very interesting article
Can’t wait for “the little green book”, because I like Will’s character alot.