Susannah Herbert from the Sunday Times spoke to Philip Pullman recently to discuss his upcoming release, Once Upon a Time in the North and reveals a number of concerns that are informing not only the author’s writing but also his lifestyle and ideas on the state of things. Drawing upon his childhood imagination of a heroic father and his favourite Western, The Magnificent Seven, he says about this story dedicated to the much loved Texan cowboy Lee Scoresby, “It wasn’t until I was some way into it that I realised: it’s about honour… Of course.”

More pressing, however, is the environmental message behind the story: ‘While the evil forces of the trilogy were all linked to an oppressive theocracy, their equivalents in Once Upon a Time in the North are allied to an oil corporation that is trying to buy up politicians and subvert the rule of law.’ Discussing the worldwide obsession with the market, Pullman compares the violence of imperialism in Roman Antiquity to the globally destructive damage done today and recalls a time just before his birth when consumption was controlled by wartime rations. “Humanity needs to evolve morally if it is to survive. We have to change and it will be very uncomfortable. But if we don’t, the alternative will be worse.” Read more.