Philip Pullman

Nationality: British

Forms: Novel, Play, Short Story, Comic, Non-Fiction

Genres: Children’s, Young Adults’, Fantasy

Awards: Carnegie Medal, Guardian Children’s Fiction Award

Similar Authors: Cornelia Funke, Diana Wynne Jones

Philip Pullman is the award-winning author of the ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy, and, more recently, ‘The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ’. His novels have been adapted for film, television and stage, and in 2008 he was named by The Times as one of ‘The 50 greatest British writers since 1945′.

Life

Philip Pullman was born in Norwich in 1946, and travelled all over the world during his childhood, settling in North Wales at the age of 11. He studied at Oxford University, graduating in 1968 and becoming a teacher. He then taught in middle schools, writing plays during this period on which some of his later novels were based, later becoming a part-time senior lecturer in English at Westminster College, Oxford, with a specialism in oral storytelling.

The first novel he wrote was for adults, but much of his work is for children. His books include four novels in the “Sally Lockhart’ series, three play adaptations, including Frankenstein (1990) and Sherlock Holmes and the Limehouse Horror (1992), and a book, How to be Cool (1987), adapted and broadcast by Granada Television in 1988. Clockwork (1996) was shortlisted for the Whitbread Children’s Book Award and for a Carnegie medal in 1997. More recently, Philip Pullman has become well-known for the ‘His Dark Materials’ Series, fantasy novels telling the story of Lyra Belacque, a young girl whose destiny is to ‘change destiny’: Northern Lights (1995), winner of a Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and a British Book Award, and shortlisted in 2007 for the Carnegie of Carnegies; The Subtle Knife (1997); The Amber Spyglass (2000), which was the first children’s book to win the Whitbread Book of the Year; and Lyra’s Oxford (2003).

The books in the ‘Dark Materials’ Series have been adapted for the stage by Nicholas Wright and an opera based on Clockwork toured theatres in 2004 with musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. A stage adaptation of The Firework Maker’s Daughter (1995) opened in 2004. A film adaptation of Northern Lights - The Golden Compass - was launched at Cannes Film Festival 2007, and opened in the UK in December 2007.

Philip Pullman lives in Oxford. In 2005, he was joint winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (Sweden). He believes that ‘stories are the most important thing in the world. Without stories, we wouldn’t be human beings at all.’

In 2007, his book, Northern Lights, won the Carnegie of Carnegies Award. His book, Once Upon a Time in the North – a prequel to the ‘His Dark Materials’ series, was published in 2008. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ (2010) is a retelling of the story of Jesus, one of the Canongate Myth Series.

Influences

The Haunted Storm New English Library, 1972

Galatea Gollancz, 1978

Using ‘The Oxford Junior Dictionary’: A Book of Exercises and Games (co-edited and illustrated by Ivan Ripley; re-published as ‘Using the Oxford Illustrated Junior Dictionary’; Oxford University Press, 1995) Oxford University Press, 1979

Ancient Civilizations (illustrated by Gary Long) Wheaton, 1981

Count Karlstein Chatto & Windus, 1982

Detective Stories (editor) Kingfisher Books, 1985

The Ruby in the Smoke Oxford University Press, 1985

The Shadow in the Plate (re-published as ‘The Shadow in the North’; Penguin/Oxford University Press, 1988) Oxford University Press, 1986

How to be Cool Heinemann, 1987

Spring-Heeled Jack Doubleday, 1989

Frankenstein (play adaptation) Oxford University Press, 1990

The Broken Bridge Macmillan Children’s Books, 1990

The Tiger in the Well Viking Children’s Books, 1991

Sherlock Holmes and the Limehouse Horror (play adaptation) Nelson, 1992

The White Mercedes Macmillan, 1992