Philip Pullman is one of the best-known
children's authors living today. He spent much of his childhood
travelling around the world as both his father and stepfather
were in the forces. He learnt to read whilst at sea, and considers
his greatest influence to be his grandfather. A clergyman
in the Church of England, he was a marvellous storyteller,
and instilled in Philip a great love of stories. Philip's
grandfather passed away before Philip had his first book published,
but he still measures what he writes against his judgement.
Philip read English at Oxford University,
and for a long time was a teacher. His first book Count
Karlstein was in fact a play, created for the pupils at
his school to act in. Philip has also written television scripts,
which he enjoys as it is less solitary than working on novels.
The first part of his ground-breaking
His Dark Materials trilogy was published in 1995. Part
I, Northern Lights won the Guardian Prize for Children's
Fiction, and went on to win the coveted Carnegie Medal the
following year. The next book, The Subtle Knife was
shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. The Amber Spyglass
was published in 2001 and was the first children's book ever
to win the overall Whitbread Book Prize. This led to a dramatic
rise in sales, and increase in the amount of media interest
and coverage of Philip. Sir Tom Stoppard is working on a major
film of the trilogy, whilst it will form part of the Royal
National Theatre's productions this autumn.
Philip Pullman lives with his wife
Jude near Oxford. He used to write in a shed at the bottom
of the garden, but when he moved recently he gave the shed
to fellow writer Ted Dewan. He now spends his time surrounded
by books in a special writing room. He writes on very specific
paper, and makes prolific use of the smallest yellow post-it
notes on which he plans out the plot for each page before
he starts writing. He also sets himself a target of words
to write each day.
In autumn 2002 Philip was awarded the
Eleanor Farjeon prize in recognition for his enormous contribution
to the world of children's books, and he announced a partial
withdrawal from public life in order to write. Philip was
made a CBE in the New Year Honours List 2004.
David Fickling Books published Lyra's
Oxford in 2003.
In 2005, Philip Pullman won the 2005 Astrid Lindgren Memorial
Award.
This is an immense achievement, and
is one of the greatest honours that a children's author can
receive. The award, set up by the Swedish government in 2002,
is the world's largest children's and young people's literary
award. It is awarded to authors, illustrators, narrators and
promoters of reading whose work reflects the spirit of Astrid
Lindgren.
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