Oh, and congratulations on your thousandth post 🙂

Excellent. Incidentally, our daughter played viola for some of the backing tracks on the Nonsuch CD.

Incidentally, we may still have Will's story in novella form to look forward to as this has been touted as another of the Dust-adjacent booklets waiting in the wings – so we might hope for some resolution there!

"And what are you going to do?"
"Go on telling stories, I expect," said Lyra.

Personally, I think this is PP's way of saying that after 30 years of telling stories about Lyra (volume 1 of HDM came out in 1995) Lyra's own story carries on but he may not necessarily be telling it, if at all.

I'm shocked too, what sad news.

Oh no, that must feel awful – but if it's any consolation I think you'd be a perfect fit as a bookseller, knowledgeable and enthusiastic as you are!