Philip Pullman's The Book of Dust series conclusion The Rose Field confirms publication date

The release marks 30 years since book lovers were first introduced to heroine Lyra Belacqua in Northern Lights, with The Rose Field being a culmination of the cultural phenomenon of The Book of Dust and His Dark Materials.

Pullman said of the forthcoming book: "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."

• Pre-order The Rose Field: The Book of Dust Volume Three at Waterstones

Readers last left Lyra in The Secret Commonwealth, where she found herself alone in the ruins of a deserted city. Pantalaimon had run from her in search of her imagination, which he believed she had lost, while Lyra travelled across the world from her home in search of her dæmon. And Malcolm also set off on a journey far from home, in search of Lyra.

In The Rose Field, "their quests converge in the most dangerous, breathtaking and world-changing ways".

The book's description continues: "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."

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.

"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."

• Pre-order The Rose Field: The Book of Dust Volume Three at Waterstones

The Rose Field: The Book of Dust Volume Three will be published in hardback, trade paperback, ebook and audiobook on Thursday 23rd October 2025 by David Fickling Books in association with Penguin Random House in the UK, featuring original new illustrations from Chris Wormell.

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