Philip Pullman’s new book entitled Once Upon a Time in the North takes readers back to the very start of His Dark Materials. The Guardian online newspaper has published an exclusive extract from this new book.

The battered cargo balloon came in out of a rainstorm over the White Sea, losing height rapidly and swaying in the strong north-west wind as the pilot trimmed the vanes and tried to adjust the gas-valve. The pilot was a lean young man with a large hat, a laconic disposition and a thin moustache,and at present he was making for the Barents Sea Company Depot, whose location was marked on a torn scrap of paper pinned to the binnacle of the gondola. He could see the depot spread out around the little harbour ahead - a cluster of administrative buildings, a hangar, a warehouse, workshops, gas storage tanks and the associated machinery; it was all approaching fast, and he had to make quick adjustments to everything he could control in order to avoid the hangar roof and make for the open space beyond the warehouse.

To enjoy the full extract then please visit the Guardian’s book review section - http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2267310,00.html