‘And now the final part begins . . .’
PHILIP PULLMAN ANNOUNCES EPIC FINALE TO LYRA SILVERTONGUE’S STORY:
THE ROSE FIELD: THE BOOK OF DUST VOLUME THREE
* The conclusion of a cultural phenomenon that has captivated readers for thirty years *
Oxford, Tuesday 29 April 2025: Today, Philip Pullman has announced the long-awaited and highly anticipated conclusion to his bestselling The Book of Dust sequence. The final volume, titled The Rose Field, will be published on 23rd October 2025.
The Rose Field: The Book of Dust Volume Three will be published simultaneously by David Fickling Books in association with Penguin Random House in the UK, and by Random House in the US. It will be illustrated by Chris Wormell, and the multi-award winning actor Michael Sheen will return to narrate the audiobook, also released on 23rd October 2025.
Marking thirty years since the world was first introduced to Pullman’s remarkable heroine Lyra Belacqua in Northern Lights (1995), The Rose Field is the culmination of the cultural phenomenon of The Book of Dust and His Dark Materials.
Thirty years ago, Pullman introduced Lyra Belacqua and her daemon Pantalaimon in the pages of Northern Lights. Then eleven or twelve, she had already survived a flood – which readers would learn of in La Belle Sauvage, published in 2017 – and through two further books in the His Dark Materials trilogy: The Subtle Knife, published in 1997 and The Amber Spyglass published in 2000, she would go on to travel worlds, fulfilling her destiny as the Second Eve. She battled to bring an end to death. She experienced first love. And her adventures did not end with childhood. When readers last saw Lyra in The Secret Commonwealth, published in 2019, she was a young woman, separated from her daemon. She had travelled, risking everything, halfway across the world – on a dangerous quest.
The global cultural impact of Philip Pullman’s legacy as a storyteller cannot be underestimated: His Dark Materials and the first two volumes of The Book of Dust have sold more than 49 million copies in over 35 territories and inspired adaptations across stage and screen. La Belle Sauvage won the Waterstones Book of the Year and saw Pullman receive Author of the Year at both the British Book Awards 2018 and the Specsavers National Book Awards 2018.
The audio editions have similarly captured hearts, minds – and multiple awards. To mark the 30th anniversary, new audio editions of His Dark Materials have been released, narrated by Ruth Wilson, who starred as Mrs Coulter in the BBC adaptation. Michael Sheen narrated the first two volumes of The Book of Dust with La Belle Sauvage winning ‘Audiobook of the Year’ at the British Book Awards 2018. There are also full cast recordings of His Dark Materials narrated by Philip Pullman himself.
Philip Pullman says:
“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 dæmon 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 a storyteller rather than a novelist or a writer of literary fiction, belonging among the tellers of folk tales, fairy tales, ballads and myths.”
Francesca Dow, Managing Director, Penguin Random House Children’s (UK):
“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. Fans will love it, and new fans too, as they finally discover the answers to Lyra’s questions, on Dust, imagination, and love, as we meet old friends and make new ones along the way.
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."
David Fickling, Publisher and Editor, David Fickling Books:
“’What do you want to write next?’ I asked Philip Pullman over a bangers and mash editorial lunch in 1995. Well, he said, I was thinking of setting a novel in the universe of John Milton author of Paradise Lost. I nodded as if that was perfectly normal and then he began quoting effortlessly, gloriously, from that great poem. I joined in as best I could and realised quickly that he wasn’t making a pitch or telling me about a mere book. He was showing me a vision, a vision of a universe.
Three thousand pages and thirty years later I realise without fear of contradiction that the publication of The Rose Field this autumn is a moment of cultural importance that reaches far beyond books. Pullman is a poet of story. He shows us a world brimming with wonder and possibility and what it is to be a human being. He gives us hope.”
Bea Carvalho, Head of Books at Waterstones, says:
“The arrival of the concluding volume of The Book of Dust is a highly momentous occasion for booksellers, bookshops, and readers everywhere: the highlight of our bookselling year and a moment which has been longed for since the release of The Secret Commonwealth six years ago. One would be hard pressed to dream up a publication which could be met with such anticipation. Across two trilogies and thirty years, Pullman has built an immense creative legacy, and the global cultural significance of this event extends far beyond the usual reach of book publishing.”
A first glimpse at The Rose Field: The Book of Dust Volume Three:
‘Lyra: what will you do when you find this place in the desert, the opening to the world of the roses?’
‘Defend it,’ Lyra said. ‘Die defending it.’
When readers left Lyra in The Secret Commonwealth she was alone, in the ruins of a deserted city. Pantalaimon had run from her – part of himself – in search of her imagination, which he believed she had lost. Lyra travelled across the world from her Oxford home in search of her dæmon. And Malcolm, loyal Malcolm, too journeyed far from home, towards the Silk Roads in search of Lyra…
In The Rose Field, their quests converge in the most dangerous, breathtaking and world-changing ways. They must take help from spies and thieves, gryphons and witches, old friends and new, learning all the while the depth and surprising truths of the alethiometer. All around them, the world is aflame – made terrifying by fear, power and greed.
As they move East, towards the red building that will reunite them and give them answers – on Dust, on the special roses, on imagination – so too does the Magisterium, at war against all that Lyra holds dear.
The Rose Field: The Book of Dust Volume Three will be published in hardback, trade paperback, ebook and audiobook on Thursday 23 October 2025 by David Fickling Books in association with Penguin Random House in the UK, featuring original new illustrations from Chris Wormell.
