IN the quiet study of a country cottage near Oxford celebrated author Philip Pullman continues to pen the ethereal adventures of Lyra Belacqua.

The writer of the acclaimed His Dark Materials trilogy likes nothing better than creating his latest chapter, first written out in longhand before it is revised and polished for the eyes of his friend and publisher David Fickling.

"The re-working is the process I enjoy most," the author confided.

"It's like woodwork - you cut the wood, shape it and plane it and the final stages are the longest, working on the surface."

This painstaking process will be interrupted next month when La Belle Sauvage, the first instalment of The Book of Dust, is published.

This new tale, which will be jointly published by Mr Fickling and publishing giant Penguin Random House Children's Books, on October 19, is long awaited.

The story takes place ten years before the events of the His Dark Materials trilogy, while the second and third instalments will pick up 20 years after the end of The Amber Spyglass, the final instalment of His Dark Materials.

In La Belle Sauvage 11-year-old Malcolm Polstead and his daemon, Asta, live with his parents at the Trout Inn in Wolvercote.

Across the River Thames, which Malcolm navigates using his beloved canoe, a boat by the name of La Belle Sauvage, is Godstow Priory where the nuns live.

Malcolm learns they have a guest with them - a baby by the name of Lyra.

"It's not a prequel and it's not a sequel - it's an equal," said the author, a former Exeter College graduate who went on to work as a teacher before starting out on his career writing children's books.

"The second instalment has been completed but not the third - I would have preferred to wait until all three were finished before the first one was published but that would have been too long to wait.

"There is a bit more noise than usual surrounding the publication of this book because people have had to wait such a long time for it.

"Over the years I have been doing other things, writing other books and I wanted to take the time this book needed - it's a long story and needed a lot of thinking about and re-working."

The fanfare for Mr Pullman's latest work will first be sounded on October 18 at the Bodleian Library and there will be a whirlwind of publicity events to follow.

It will remind the author of the red carpet treatment he received when Northern Lights, the first book from His Dark Materials, was made into a movie, The Golden Compass, in 2007.

Ten years on, the author is promising not to get too caught up in the celebrations he hopes will follow in the months to come.

"Of course it would be nice to find that the book is welcomed but you have to work as if no-one is going to going to read it at all and make it the best it can be for its own sake," explained Mr Pullman.

"If I spent all my time on publicity it would be impossible for me to do any work, and I still have a lot of work to do."

When Mr Pullman, who lives with wife Jude and has two grown-up sons, is asked if his fiction prompts him think about his own childhood, his response is slightly cryptic.

"Everything makes me think I am growing older, my creaking knees and aching back," he said.

"As you get nearer the end of your life you think about earlier times. Perhaps I will start working on my memoirs at some point but not just yet."

The author is adamant that his life story is not particularly dramatic.

"I didn't want a life of adventures and excitement," he insisted.

"I would much rather have a quiet life sitting here writing books."

A quick glance at Mr Pullman's biography, however, reveals at least one dramatic life-changing occurrence.

Born in Norwich in 1946, the author was the son of Audrey Pullman and RAF pilot Alfred, who was killed in a plane crash in Kenya.

Philip was still a young boy at the time of the tragedy and it was not until he was much older that he found out more about the circumstances of his father's death during campaign against the Mau Mau uprising.

Right now, with the first instalment of The Book of Dust about to be published, the writer is looking forward to October 19, when thousands of readers will, at last, get their hands on 560-page La Belle Sauvage.

It will undoubtedly be one of the publishing events of the year but Mr Pullman will be careful to ensure he steps off the publicity merry-go-round once it is time to complete part three of The Book of Dust.

*La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman goes on sale on October 19, published by Penguin Random House Children's and David Fickling Books, price £20.