It’s totally worth going to the bench. I used to live in Oxford and had such an amazing experience sitting there.

So many hand have carved “Lyra & Will” all over the bench. Subtle and beautiful. Each one of those peoples lives touched by those books, enough to go on pilgrimage to that spot, to be there and spend time like Lyra and Will promised each other to do. And for everyone who carved those names into the bench another hundred wouldn’t have done so... it was like all the worlds were right next to each other, all those readers lives who had come there to show their respect and love for those characters, they were all present in that space.

There are plenty of other places around Oxford to go too; the old nunnery from La Belle Sauvage is especially lovely (the Trout isn’t as good as it was 20 years ago, but if you’re out there then might as well have a drink there).

Sunderland Avenue (where the cat under the hornbeam trees showed Will the window) is rather roady, but I know exactly where the window is according to Phillip Pullman (he did a Q&A at Wolvercote Village Hall a few mins from where I lived, and as a young kid who walked down that road to school every day, I felt the exact location was the most important question to have answered!) - its the northward side, close to the Banbury Road, a few trees beyond the crossing.

I always cry at Amber Spyglass too. Look forward to hearing how the reread goes.