THE latest tour to give fans of literature a fix on the streets of Oxford has begun making its way around the city.

Hot on the heels of walking tours exploring locations from the Inspector Morse books and the Harry Potter films, fans of fantasy fiction can now explore Lyra's Oxford, the setting of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series.

The tours, run by Experience Oxfordshire, begin on Thursday, October 19 to coincide with the release of La Belle Sauvage, the first book in Mr Pullman's new book of Dust trilogy.

The two-hour tour will take visitors to key locations from the popular books, including the Botanic Garden, Pitt Rivers Museum, Bodleian Library, Covered Market and Exeter College, the inspiration for the fictional ‘Jordan College’ and where Mr Pullman himself studied in the sixties.

The tour is packed with the history of the city and Mr Pullman’s life, with additional titbits about Oxford's other literary greats from Lewis Carroll to C.S Lewis.

Tourists begin the trip in Turl Street, making their way through the Covered Market and into Exeter College and then the Bodleian.

On a preview tour last week, guide Terry Bremble explained the intricate detail of Mr Pullman’s inspirations behind the books, including the staircase of the college he lived as a student and how he escaped onto the roof, as Lyra does in the His Dark Materials novels.

Ms Bremble, who has worked as a tour guide in the city for 30 years, said she "finds it pleasing" that Oxford hasn’t changed much from the city depicted in Mr Pullman’s novels, the last of which came out 14 years ago.

On display in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Parks' Road is a North American parka dress made from fish and seal that is mentioned in the books.

The expedition ends in the Botanic Garden, where ‘Will and Lyra’s bench’ from the Amber Spyglass is located.

Experience Oxfordshire said it expected a good level of interest in the tours, but did not expect them to be quite as popular as the Harry Potter Highlights tour which runs every week.

Annie MacDonald, the tour desk team leader at Oxford walking tours said: "We've launched it now to celebrate the launch of the new trilogy, that's why our first tour is on the same day as the launch of the book. In 2007 we ran a similar tour called Lyra's Oxford to celebrate the launch of the film. We're running more tours this year as we expect demand to be higher. Fans have been waiting 10 years for this book and Blackwells and Waterstones both have sold out events celebrating the launch."

The tours will run every Saturday at 1.45pm and tickets cost £20 for adults, £19 for Seniors and £16 for children aged 5 to 15.

For more information visit experienceoxfordshire.org or call 01865 686441.