Alex’s Reviews > Northern Lights > Status Update

The idea hovered and shimmered delicately, like a soap bubble, and she dared not even look at it directly in case it burst. But she was familiar with the way of ideas, and she let it shimmer, looking away, thinking about something else.

Mrs Coulter was shaking her head and smiling a sad wise smile.

Being a practised liar doesn't mean you have a powerful imagination. Many good liars have no imagination at all; it's that which gives their lies such wide-eyed conviction.

It was pleasure, but not simple pleasure, for there was pain and fear in it too.

She felt in the pocket of her wolfskin coat and took out the velvet package. She laid it on the table, and she sensed John Faa's massive simple curiosity and Farder Coram's bright flickering intelligence both trained on it like searchlights.

She bent a little and offered her cheek. Lyra had to stand on tiptoe to kiss it. She noticed how smooth it was, and the slight perplexing smell of Mrs Coulter's flesh: scented, but somehow metallic.

She had seen a great deal of beauty in her short life, but it was Jordan College beauty, Oxford beauty - grand and stony and masculine. In Jordan College, much was magnificent, but nothing was pretty. In Mrs Coulter's flat, everything was pretty.

Under the sizzle of the frying butter and the hum of talk, Lyra shifted around to find a more comfortable position for herself.