La Belle Sauvage is the book I hadn't realised I needed. Only when I started reading the opening chapters of Phillip Pullman's triumphant return to the Oxford of His Dark Materials trilogy did I understand how much I had missed this world in the 17 years since The Amber Spyglass was published.
The qualities I loved those books for are here in spades. La Belle Sauvage has sumptuous characters: Brave, adventurous, magnificent children; adults who are by turns complex, dangerous and sympathetic; and the villains of your darkest nights. It has Pullman's signature blend of critical thinking on religion and politics, inviting diversions into magic and the supernatural, as well as plenty to think about in terms of personal virtues such as honour, loyalty, love and morality. And all this served up in an imaginative, fast-paced narrative full of breathless adventure. (Yes, I loved it.)
This new series is billed as neither sequel nor prequel, but complementary. Lyra, the bright star of His Dark Materials, is central to the plot here, but in a non-speaking role as a baby at the centre of a tug of war between the liberal establishment and a repressive church/state. And if you feel like you might know this story, yes it does have a very contemporary feel to it in the time of Trump and Brexit, despite being set in 'Brytain' that is an alternate reality that captures on odd sense of both familiarity and disconnect.
The star of La Belle Sauvage then is 11-year-old Malcolm Polstead, the son of the landlord of the Trout Inn, a very famous real world Thames-side pub near Oxford. Malcolm splits his time betwen school, helping out in the bar and working across the river in Godstow Priory, whose nuns care for six-month-old Lyra.
Malcolm's life is changed when he finds a wooden acorn carrying a secret message under a tree, and witnesses the arrest of its bearer. As a result he then meets Dr Hannah Relf, a philosophy professor, and part of a resistance spy network, whose friendship casts him into the middle of the battle against the Magisterium (church) and the dark forces that would threaten Lyra.
Malcolm is a delight: brave, true and a 'romantic' as Relf would describe him. But she also is a character to cherish, the sort of teacher every child needs and under her guidance Malcolm begins to flourish.
While all this is going on it rains, and rains and then rains some more, eventually bringing a biblical crisis that accelerates the story into the rapids.
Along the way there are some old friends, features and places - Farder Coram, Lord Asriel, alethiometers, Jordan College - and some less friendly ones - Mrs Coulter.
La Belle Sauvage is enchanting, fascinating - really quite brilliant.
The final words of the text - To be continued - are both reassuring and cruel. It may not be 17 years until we hear more from Malcolm and Lyra, but it won't be tomorrow either. This time I know I need more, and the sooner the better.