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Philip Pullman CBE (born October 19, 1946) is an English writer. He is the best-selling author of His Dark Materials, a trilogy of fantasy novels, and a number of other books, purportedly for children, but attracting increasing attention from adult readers.

Brief biography

Pullman was born in Norwich to RAF pilot Alfred Outram and Audrey Evelyn Merrifield. The family travelled with his father's job, including to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where he spent time at school. His father was killed in a plane crash in 1953 when Pullman was seven. His mother remarried and with a move to Australia came Pullman's discovery of comic books including Superman and Batman, a medium which he continues to espouse. From 1957 he was educated at Ysgol Ardudwy school in Harlech, Gwynedd and spent time in Norfolk with his grandfather, a clergyman. Around this time Pullman discovered John Milton's Paradise Lost, which would become a major impetus for His Dark Materials.

From 1963 Pullman attended Exeter College, Oxford (receiving a Third class BA in 1968). He discovered William Blake's illustrations around 1970, which would also later influence him greatly.

Pullman married Judith Speller in 1970 and began teaching children and writing school plays. His first-published work was The Haunted Storm, which joint-won the New English Library's Young Writer's Award. He nevertheless refuses to discuss it. Galatea, an adult fantasy-fiction novel followed in 1978, but it was his school plays which inspired his first children's book, Count Karlstein in 1982. He stopped teaching around the publication of The Ruby in the Smoke (1986), his second children's book, whose Victorian setting is indicative of Pullman's interest in that era.

Pullman taught part-time at Westminster College in Oxford between 1988 and 1996, continuing to write children's stories. He began His Dark Materials around 1993. Northern Lights (published as "The Golden Compass" in the US) was published in 1996 and won the Carnegie Medal, one of the most prestigious British children's fiction awards, and the Guardian Children's Fiction Award.

Pullman has been writing full-time since 1996, but continues to deliver talks and writes occasionally for The Guardian. He was awarded a CBE in the New Year's Honours list in 2004. Pullman also began teaching Master level courses in English at his alma mater, Exeter College, Oxford, in 2004. He is currently working on The Book of Dust, a sequel to his completed His Dark Materials triology.

His Dark Materials

His Dark Materials consists of Northern Lights (titled The Golden Compass in North America), The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass (a short companion piece, Lyra's Oxford, containing items of interest and a short story, has also been published, and another larger companion novel, The Book of Dust, is currently being written).

The first volume of the trilogy, Northern Lights, won the Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in the UK in 1995. The Amber Spyglass, the last volume, was awarded both 2001 Whitbread Prize for best children's book and the Whitbread Book of the Year prize in January 2002, the first children's book to receive that award. The trilogy won popular acclaim in late 2003, taking third place in the BBC's Big Read poll.

In 2005 Pullman was announced as joint winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for children's literature.

Philosophical and Religious perspective

Pullman is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.

The His Dark Materials books have been at the heart of controversy, especially with certain Christian groups. Some, including Peter Hitchens, claim that he actively pursues an anti-Christian agenda. Proponents of this view cite the critical articles he has written regarding C. S. Lewis' series The Chronicles of Narnia (which Pullman denounces as religious propaganda), and the usually negative portrayal of the "Church" in His Dark Materials.

The two series bear some resemblance. Both feature children facing adult moral choices, talking animals, religious allegories, parallel worlds, and concern the ultimate fate of those worlds. The first published Narnia book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe begins with a young girl hiding in a wardrobe, as does the first His Dark Materials book, Northern Lights, ("The Golden Compass" in the US). Pullman's criticism of the Narnia books is shared by some liberal commentators such as Polly Toynbee.

Some, including Hitchens again, have seen the His Dark Materials series as a direct rebuttal of C. S. Lewis's series. Pullman has criticised in particular Lewis's use of a fictional cure for cancer in one of the Narnia books, which Pullman claimed would raise false hopes in children who were themselves, or who had friends or family members who were, seriously ill. He has also criticised the way Lewis excludes the character Susan from the final heaven scenes in The Last Battle, saying she is rejected for her growing worldliness and her rejection of Narnia. Lewis devotees argue that Pullman has read too deeply into this; Lewis made no such statement about Susan's final destiny, and never excluded the possibility of her rejoining her friends in heaven later, as they are dead and she is not.

However, Pullman has found support from other Christians, most notably Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. These groups and individuals point out that Pullman's attacks are focused on the constraints of dogmatism and the use of religion to oppress, not Christianity itself. Dr. Williams has gone so far as to propose that His Dark Materials be taught as part of religious education in schools. Moreover, even authors of works dedicated to critical appraisals of religious themes in his writing have described Pullman as a friendly and generous debating partner.

Bibliography

Non-series books

• 1972 The Haunted Storm
• 1976 Galatea
• 1982 Count Karlstein
• 1987 How to be Cool
• 1989 Spring-Heeled Jack
• 1990 The Broken Bridge
• 1992 The White Mercedes
• 1993 The Wonderful Story of Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp
• 1995 Clockwork or All Wound Up
• 1995 The Firework-Maker's Daughter
• 1998 Mossycoat
• 1998 The Butterfly Tattoo (re-issue of The White Mercedes)
• 1999 I was a Rat! or The Scarlet Slippers
• 2000 Puss in Boots: The Adventures of That Most Enterprising Feline
• 2004 The Scarecrow and his Servant

The New-Cut Gang

• 1994 Thunderbolt's Waxwork
• 1995 The Gasfitter's Ball

Sally Lockhart

• 1985 The Ruby in the Smoke
• 1986 The Shadow in the North (first published as The Shadow in the Plate)
• 1990 The Tiger in the Well
• 1994 The Tin Princess

His Dark Materials

• 1995 Northern Lights, retitled The Golden Compass in the US
• 1997 The Subtle Knife
• 2000 The Amber Spyglass

Companion Books

• 2003 Lyra's Oxford
• ???? The Book of Dust (not yet published)

Plays

• 1990 Frankenstein
• 1992 Sherlock Holmes and the Limehouse Horror

Non-fiction

• 1978 Ancient Civilisations
• 1978 Using the Oxford Junior Dictionary

Source: [1]

References

Further reading

External links

• Philip Pullman Resources
• Philip-Pullman.com Official site

• Article: Pullman criticizes modern fiction The Guardian, August 12, 2002, "Fiction becoming trivial and worthless, says top author".
• Essay: Pullman criticizes a proposed "religious hatred" law The Guardian, November 19, 2005, "Identity Crisis".
• "The dark side of Narnia": Essay by Pullman.
• Pullman on religion (video)
• "For the Love of Narnia": Essay in response to Pullman.

• His Dark Materials.org fansite
• His Dark Materials | Bridge to the Stars fansite
• The Fiction of Ceres Wunderkind Fan fiction and articles

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