Bud Schlesinger was a New Dane, an agent of Oakley Street under Thomas Nugent and a diplomat at the New Danish consulate in Smyrna. During the flood of 1986, he delivered news of prophecies concerning Lyra Belacqua and Malcolm Polstead to Hannah Relf, George Papadimitriou, and Lord Nugent after visiting the witches of the Enara region in the North. His dæmon took the form of a small owl.[1]
Although he did not work full-time for Oakley Street in his later life, his position in Smyrna put him at a global crossroads where he could still provide them with useful information. Bud lived in an apartment in Smyrna with his wife Anita.[2]
Biography[]
Bud told Lyra Silvertongue that he had been completing a doctorate in Oxford at the time of the flood.[2] Coram van Texel mentioned him in a letter to Nugent. He and Bud had met in Martin Lanselius's house in Trollesund.[3]
Bud helped search for Malcolm, Alice Parslow and Lyra in their canoe. While in Chelsea, not too long before the canoe arrived there, he stopped a Consistorial Court of Discipline boat from hooking onto the engine boat owner's.[4]
Twenty years later, Bud recognised Lyra in the Café Antalya and told her that the High Council of the Magisterium had ordered her arrest, although not publicly. He took Lyra back to his apartment to give her a letter from Malcolm and to allow Anita to help with a disguise.
Before his return to his office, Bud offered to let Lyra stay with them in Smyrna until Malcolm's arrival.[2] The apartment was later fire-bombed after both he and Lyra had left, but Anita managed to escape. The couple theorised that her journalistic work into Thuringia Potash was one of the reasons for the attack.
Bud and Anita stayed at the consulate whilst waiting for the apartment to be rebuilt. When Malcolm arrived in Smyrna, Bud took him to see Ted Cartwright, who had just arrived at a safehouse in the city. Ted told them that he had had to escape when the Tashbulak botanical research station was destroyed, also mentioning the simurgh. Ted's nurse, an agent employed by Thuringia Potash, injected Bud with a short-acting substance that made him lose consciousness. By the time he regained it, Ted had died from the poison he was given. Bud then helped an injured Malcolm, shot by the nurse before her suicide, find a trustworthy doctor.
Malcolm and Bud later had tea with Anita at the consulate, where Anita told Malcolm about what she knew about Thuringia Potash's activities and what they had to do with the rose gardens.[5]
Bud had also promised Lyra he would be at Café Antalya at 11am on Monday 11th May, a meeting scribbled on a leaflet she had found in the possessions of Anthony Hassall.[2]
Physical description[]
Bud was fair-haired, slim, strong and active-looking and in his forties or early fifties when Lyra met him in Smyrna. His New Danish accent was stronger than his wife's. His dæmon was small and white, and her eyes were large, yellow and black-rimmed.[2]
Personality[]
Lyra thought his manner free, informal and friendly. She got the impression he was simultaneously concerned, puzzled and pleased by their unexpected meeting. Despite not working for Oakley Street full-time, Bud's sense of loyalty, both to his friendships and principles, bound him to the organisation decades later.[2]
Behind the scenes[]
- Philip Pullman named Bud after someone's father-in-law to raise money for a humanitarian charity.[6]
Appearances[]
References[]
- ↑ La Belle Sauvage, Chapter 17
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 The Secret Commonwealth, Chapter 27
- ↑ La Belle Sauvage, Chapter 4
- ↑ La Belle Sauvage, Chapter 25
- ↑ The Secret Commonwealth, Chapter 29
- ↑ The New Yorker