afghanistan cast an irresistible spell on steve mccurry, oxford has the same effect on storyteller phillip hallmant not the day-to-day oxford that we know here in england. an alternative oxford, as conceived in his brilliantly creative mind. that is where i found the famous novelist as he released volume 1 of his new trilogy, "the book of dust." his long-awaited follow-up to the highly acclaimed series "his dark materials." >> phillip pullman, welcome to the program. >> thank you. >> so this is now 17 years since your last major work. what made you do the new book? why now? >> well, it's been quite a long time in the writing. i began writing this one ten or so years ago, and it's taken me quite a long time to get this far with it. when i finished "his dark materials" with a book called "the amber spyglass," i had a sense that wasn't the last i was going to know about lyra, the heroine. i felt she was going to have some more adventures. but i didn't know what they were or where they would take her. and when i started writing about her in this book, she's only six months old in this story. so she's