Once Upon A Time in The North

Once Upon a Time in the North, a fantasy novella by Philip Pullman (first published on 3 April 2008 in the United Kingdom) functions as a prequel to Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The premise of the story involves the meeting of Iorek Byrnison and Lee Scoresby — an incident originally expected to appear in The Book of Dust:

I've just finished a short book which will be coming out next spring, probably March or April in this country. It's called Once Upon A Time in the North, and it's about Lee and Iorek. When we see them for the first time with Lyra, Lee is not that old, he's fifty, sixty, something like that, so they know each other for a long time. But I wanted to write a story when they first met as they were young, and I've just written it. I'm making a little book like Lyra's Oxford with extra-bits. I've just been working on it, on a game, a game-board. It's going to be part of that book. —Philip Pullman

Pullman has remarked that in addition to Once Upon a Time in the North and The Book of Dust, a small green book about Will may appear some day:

Lyra's Oxford was a dark red book. Once Upon a Time in the North will be a dark blue book. There still remains a green book. And that will be Will's book. Eventually... —Philip Pullman

The Guardian carried an "exclusive" extract from the book under the heading Winds of Chance on 22 March 2008.

The book launch took place on 31 March in Oxford during the Oxford Literary Festival. Over 700 fans massed in Oxford Town Hall to hear Philip Pullman speak to Today programme presenter James Naughtie about his new novella.