This is an article from the winner of the CBBC Newsround contest. She writes of her meeting with Philip Pullman and their walk around Oxford. There is also a link to watch the report.
Sophie won CBBC Newsround's competion to interview top author Philip Pullman at a special event in Oxford.
Here she reports on how nervous she was - and what secrets he let her in on.
"I love Philip Pullman's books - they're really original and all the characters are idols to me.
I can imagine Lyra when he writes about her and you can picture the scenes she's in.
My brother got Northern Lights when it was first out a few years ago and he got really into Philip Pullman's book.
Powerful writer
Around that time my dad started reading my the first one and I just got hooked - he writes really powerfully with lots of description.
I was so excited when I found out I'd won the Newsround competition to meet him. On the day of filming I went to the bookshop to meet him and I was really nervous
I was worried it was going to be uncomfortable because he's a famous writer and I was just a competition winner.
But when I met him he was really friendly and we chatted easily.
Daemons
I asked him where he got his inspiration from and how attached he was to Lyra, the main character in his Dark Materials Trilogy.
He gave me lots of answers - he told me that in Lyra's world there are daemons in the form of animals who are like ourselves.
He said he thinks we have daemons like that but in a different form.
He also told me his new book, Lyra's Oxford, was full of illustrations so it's quite different to the Trilogy.
I asked Philip Pullman what he was writing at the moment and said it was a continuation of the Dark Materials, hopefully out in two years time.
Inspiration
After the interview we went to his old college at Oxford University.
He pointed out where he used to climb onto the roof, and where he got the idea of Lyra climbing on roofs.
It was a really exciting day. Meeting my favourite author Philip Pullman was the experience of a lifetime."
[© CBBC]
0 comments - Add yours