The shed contains two comfortable chairs (one for writing in, one for sitting at the computer in), several hundred books, a six-foot-long stuffed rat which took a part in his play Sherlock Holmes and the Limehouse Horror, a guitar, a saxophone, as well as the computer, decorated with dozens of brightly coloured artificial flowers attached to it by Blu-Tack.īlu-Tack plays a big part in Philip Pullman’s writing process. Philip still lives in Oxford, and he writes in a shed at the bottom of his garden. Some of his novels were based on plays he wrote for his school pupils, such as The Ruby In The Smoke. His first published novel was for adults, but he began writing for children when he was a teacher. He eventually left teaching in order to write full-time. He taught courses on the Victorian novel and on the folk tale, and also a course examining how words and pictures fit together. He taught at various middle schools for twelve years, and then moved to Westminster College, Oxford, to be a part-time lecturer. He did a number of odd jobs for a while, and then moved back to Oxford to become a teacher. His English teacher, Miss Enid Jones, was a big influence on him, and he still sends her copies of his books.Īfter he left school he went to Exeter College, Oxford, to read English. It was a time when children were allowed to roam anywhere, to play in the streets, to wander over the hills, and he took full advantage of it. He spent part of his childhood in Australia, where he first met the wonders of comics, and grew to love Superman and Batman in particular.įrom the age of 11, he lived in North Wales, having moved back to Britain. The early part of his life was spent travelling all over the world, because his father and then his stepfather were both in the Royal Air Force. Philip was born in Norwich on 19th October 1946. He has published nearly 20 books in total, and when he’s not writing he likes to play the piano (badly), draw and make things out of wood. In 2007, The Golden Compass became a major Hollywood film starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. In 2003, His Dark Materials came third in the BBC’s ‘Big Read’ competition to find the nation’s favourite book, and in 2005 he was awarded the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the world’s biggest prize for children’s literature. He is best known for the trilogy of books known as His Dark Materials, which won the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award. Philip Pullman is probably the world’s most acclaimed living children’s author, whose bold, brilliant books have set new parameters for what children’s writing can say and do.
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