." >> phillip pullman, welcome to the program. >> thank you. >> so this is now 17 years since your lastor 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 "h 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 not able to do very much or do anything at all of her own volition. she's certainly the center of all the activity that's going on. i was pleased to see her at that age because this book sets in place the beginning of the story which is going to come into full fruition 20 years later. >> and this book of yours is set in an old-fashioned sort of version of oxford, a sort of alternative universe as you're known for. so