My daughter (credit where due) was struck by Mrs Coulter’s hair changing colour between La Belle Sauvage and His Dark Materials – do we know anything about why?
In His Dark Materials1, the third chapter of Northern Lights, Lyra’s Jordan, ends with this sentence describing Mrs Coulter:
Her sleek black har framed her cheeks, and her dæmon was a golden monkey.
In La Belle Sauvage2, Chapter 14, Lady with Monkey, we read:
She was the most beautiful lady he had ever seen: young and golden-haired and sweet-faced, …
Possible partial explanations: a mistake, Nicole Kidman is fair in the film, Mrs Coulter dyes her hair on a whim or for a deeper reason …
1Everyman (UK), 2011 (single volume edition with preface by author and introduction by Lucy Hughes-Hallet)
2David Fickling Books (UK), 2017