Philip Pullman

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Philip Pullman

Born: October 19, 1946 (age 60)
Norwich
Occupation: Novelist
Genres: Fantasy
Website: Philip-Pullman.com

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.

Contents

[edit] 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 influence for His Dark Materials.

From 1963 Pullman attended Exeter College, Oxford, receiving a Third class BA in 1968, in an interview with the Oxford Student he stated that "he did not really enjoy the English course" and that "I thought I was doing quite well until I came out with my third class degree and then I realised that I wasn’t — it was the year they stopped giving fourth class degrees otherwise I’d have got one of those". [1] 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 in 1972. 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, Oxford between 1988 and 1996, continuing to write children's stories. He began His Dark Materials about 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.[citation needed] He is currently working on The Book of Dust, a sequel to his completed His Dark Materials trilogy.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.[2] 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 have 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 (published as The Golden Compass in the US). Pullman's criticism of the Narnia books is shared by some liberal commentators such as Polly Toynbee.[3]

Some, including Hitchens again, have seen the His Dark Materials series as a direct rebuttal of C. S. Lewis's series.[4] 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[citation needed]. 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[5] and her rejection of Narnia[citation needed]. Lewis devotees argue that Pullman has read too deeply into this; Lewis made no statement about Susan's ultimate destiny, and never excluded the possibility of her rejoining her friends in heaven later, as they are dead and she is still alive.

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 on 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[citation needed].

[edit] Screen adaptations

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Non-series books

[edit] The New-Cut Gang

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

[edit] Sally Lockhart

[edit] His Dark Materials

[edit] Companion Books

[edit] Plays

  • 1990 Frankenstein
  • 1992 Sherlock Holmes and the Limehouse Horror

[edit] Non-fiction

  • 1978 Ancient Civilisations
  • 1978 Using the Oxford Junior Dictionary

Source: [2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.oxfordstudent.com/tt2006wk7/Features/growing_pains
  2. ^ Hitchens, Peter. 'This is the most dangerous author in Britain' (Mail on Sunday article). The Mail on Sunday. Retrieved on September 21, 2006.
  3. ^ Toynbee, Polly. "'Narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion'" (Guardian article), The Guardian. Retrieved on September 21, 2006.
  4. ^ Hitchens, Peter. "A labour of loathing" (Spectator article), The Spectator. Retrieved on September 21, 2006.
  5. ^ Pullman, Phillip. "The Darkside of Narnia", The Guardian, archived on The Cumberland River Lamp Post, October 1, 1998. Retrieved on January 30, 2007.

[edit] Further reading

  • Lenz, Millicent (2005). His Dark Materials Illuminated: Critical Essays on Phillip Pullman's Trilogy. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-3207-2. 

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Pullman, Philip
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION English novelist
DATE OF BIRTH 19 October 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Norwich
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
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