HisDarkMaterials.org

An article about Tom Stoppard, writer of the screenplay of the His Dark Materials movies.

Tom Stoppard spent four years researching his new trilogy - yet finished it in a last-minute rush. As his 65th birthday looms, the playwright talks to Dominic Cavendish about a lifetime spent battling his perfectionist nature

Once upon a time, the bestselling author Philip Pullman used to entertain his son by recounting tales from the Odyssey each night. Time passed, and by the end of the story the boy was so galvanised that he bit a chunk out of the glass he was sipping.

Mark Greene looks at the novels of children’s author Philip Pullman and finds an old fashioned atheist for whom biblical notions of God are abhorrent.

This year’s Whitbread prize-winner Philip Pullman is, as you might expect, a fine writer, and he’s a fine writer with a cause. His cause, as he himself has made clear, is to destroy Christianity, and to liberate the world from any faith in a personal God.

Potter’s Progeny - Or, how J.K. Rowling’s young hero transformed a sleepy kid-lit market into a big bucks genre.

Imagine Harry Potter hovering on his broomstick high above a vast field.

He's not scanning the horizon for a whizzing Snitch. He's not even playing Quidditch, the sport at which he excels.

No, young Harry is waving and nodding to a cheering throng: characters from other children's books who owe at least a bit of their popularity to the boy wizard.

The BBC Big Read website has been updated, on the website you can now watch clips of the books´ presentations.

Click here for the His Dark Materials clip.

I posted this yesterday, but a slight server problem occured so the site wasn´t updated. Here it is again:

Finally, after months of waiting, Philip-Pullman.com is finally online, and working.

Click here to visit the website.

It isn´t toally finished yet, but it already contains some nice things, like an explanation of all the chapter images of the books by Philip Pullman himself.

After last weeks Big Read reviews, His Dark Matrials has dropped down to 5th place. You all must vote to get this higher up the chart! Voting is easy, just choose His His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman, and enter your details! And remember, Asriel is going to be in London soon, and is meeting some people. Take a video camera, and make an appeal for HDM! It could go on the BBC show!

The Harry Potter books have created a new phenomenon, as more adults pick up books aimed at young readers. Are we yearning for old-fashioned stories, seeking spiritual solace, or merely dumbing down? Jasper Rees investigates.

This December, as every Christmas, theatres will be keeping all the family entertained. As ever, some plays will be adapted from much-loved books. In London, the National Theatre is mounting a hugely ambitious version of Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials, while at the Young Vic David Almond's bestselling novel Skellig is being staged by Trevor Nunn. Parents will take their children, just as they have taken them to cinematic versions of Harry Potter and Louis Sachar's Holes. And when the adults profess to enjoy these plays and films, no one will bat an eyelid.

Can literature change the world? Or should it be above the concerns of society? Philip Pullman argues that while writers have wider duties, they must be faithful servants of their stories

What is the relationship between art and society? Can art do anything to make the world better, or is it quite useless? This is an old puzzle, and no one has solved it yet. At one end of the range of possible answers lies the Soviet idea that the writer is the engineer of human souls, that art has a social function and should produce what the state needs, and at the other end is the declaration of Oscar Wilde, in the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray, that there is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book; books are well written or badly written, that is all. However, he wasn't consistent about this: elsewhere, in "The Critic as Artist", he wrote "All art is immoral"; and it's notable that The Picture of Dorian Gray itself is one of the most firmly moral stories ever written.

Another old article... but a nice read...

Author Philip Pullman has become the first children's writer to win the UK's prestigious Whitbread Book of the Year prize.

His novel, The Amber Spyglass, was judged the "overwhelming" choice among four other books shortlisted for the title and a total prize of £30,000.

Collecting the award Mr Pullman said he was "speechless", because he was convinced another author would win.

He said: "I'm absolutely thrilled to win this award because it shows what I have always believed - that children's books belong with the rest in the general field, in the general market place for books and in the general conversation about books."

If you can spare three quarters of an hour then be sure to listen to this discussion broadcast on BBC. The interviewer has invited different modern novelists, amongst them Philip Pullman, to talk about their stories and how they are related to the subject of Religion and the Church.

National Theatre Platforms: 6pm (45 mins), £3·50/2·50 unless stated.

An eclectic programme of events celebrating all aspects of the arts, offering the chance to learn about the National's work and discover more about theatre.

His Dark Materials

Learn more about the adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials at a series of discussions with members of the creative team.

It is extraordinary to think that not so long ago a child described as a "bookworm" was assumed to have a problem. "Take your head out of that book," was the caring parent's command, "and get outside while the sun's shining." As soon as parents saw their children seduced from books by the lure of the dreaded TV, though, the tune changed.

An outdated article, as Pullman has now "Shed his Shed", but still a nice read:

In a wooden shed at the bottom of Philip Pullman's garden, a stuffed rat keeps watch over two comfortable chairs, several hundred books, a saxophone, a guitar and dozens of brightly coloured artificial flowers stuck to a computer with Blu-Tac.

It also watches over the author, when he is in there, because the shed is where Pullman, 55, works on his novels.

It has been a productive setting for him now The Amber Spyglass has become the first children's book to win the prestigious Whitbread Prize.

This article is about how "[Newline] appears to be backing away from its brasher days with its new lineup of remakes and sequels."

It mentions His Dark Materials:

"But New Line's string of blockbusters every Christmas could be in jeopardy. After the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy concludes next December, the studio had hoped to launch its next multipart literary adaptation, a two- or three-part series based on novelist Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" fantasy trilogy, in December 2004.

But screenwriter Tom Stoppard is still working on the adaptation, and complicated special effects mean the first movie probably will not be ready until the summer of 2005, if not later."