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Lovers of His Dark Materials will be delighted with the little gem of a text that Philip Pullman has added to the saga. Once Upon a Time in the North is only just over 100 pages long and fills in the story of how Iorek Byrnison, the armoured bear, originally met Lee Scoresby, the Texan Balloonist.

The entire, action-packed story takes place in Novy Odense, an Island in the Barents Sea. Lee Scoresby flies in just in time to come to the aid of a ship’s captain. Captain van Breda is being victimised and frustrated by Larsen Manganese, a corrupt company that is attempting to dominate the northern lands.

Scoresby and his delightful daemon, Hester (who learns, in the course of the story that she is in reality an arctic hare and not a plain rabbit) are true to the type that we have come to recognise in the later volumes of the Dark Materials – impetuous and resourceful. In a thrilling encounter, they, almost single-handedly, take on most of the members of the community.

A range of enchanting documents is included – technical papers, letters, a newspaper article giving the other side of the story and a coloured board game with its wind compass and counters.

The tiny, tasteful hardback text is handsomely cloth-bound. It would fit in your pocket and would be a lovely companion on any journey – balloon or otherwise.

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