HisDarkMaterials.org

Will Steph tell Max? Is Dee really dead? - Philip Pullman on why he is addicted to Neighbours:

I started watching Neighbours with my son when he was 16 and have been addicted ever since. I like the characters: you get fond of people you see for 25 minutes every day.

Philip Pullman about his favorite composer, Nicolai Medtner:

"Not long ago I tried to explain to a friend the effect that Nicolai Medtner’s music has on me. I spoke with eloquence, passion and wit; analogies of the most ingenious kind sprang to my lips; I found myself stirred to a frenzy of admiration for the profundity of my insights."

THE writer Philip Pullman is no stranger to controversy. The award-winning author of The Amber Spyglass is second only to J K Rowling in sales to the crossover child-adult market. But he is equally well-known as a target of vilification for the religious lobby. They describe him as the most dangerous author in Britain and cite the example of his trilogy, His Dark Materials, where he kills off God in the final volume, replacing him with "the republic of heaven".

A bit dated, but still very interesting. This year's Oxford Literary Festival included a guest appearance by Philip Pullman and advertizes maps of Oxford edited by Philip Pullman with illustrations from over thirty Oxford author's books - including His Dark Materials.

Next year's Literary Festival is to be held the 23rd through the 28th of March and will also feature Philip Pullman as a guest.

The Observer posts an article with interesting quotes from various celebrities including Philip Pullman.

'I crave dullness and routine. That's when I work best. What I would really like is a fairly long period of imprisonment, in a reasonably comfortable prison with a good library.' Best-selling writer Philip Pullman

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.

There was a very interesting interview with Philip Pullman on BBC Five Live.

The interview centres on Lyra´s Oxford, The Book of Dust, and The Stageplay.

Click here to listen.

The novelist Philip Pullman, 57, spent much of his childhood on board ships as both his father, who died when he was seven, and his stepfather served in the Royal Air Force overseas. He read English at Oxford University, and for many years was a teacher who wrote novels in the evening. He made his name in children's fiction with the His Dark Materials trilogy, which tells the story of Lyra and Will, a girl and boy who travel through alternative worlds. It is being adapted for the stage at the Royal National Theatre, and is also being made into a film, scripted by Tom Stoppard. Pullman lives with his wife, Jude, near Oxford, and has two sons.

Interesting questions, like: "Did you ever suffer a thwarted passion, like your fictional characters? And what are the defining qualities of a truly great shed?"

This is an interview with Philip Pullman from when he visited the Cheltenham Festival of Literature. Quite an interesting read!

The Sunday Telegraph had this great article about Philip Pullman. Enjoy!

In a new short story Philip Pullman has returned to the fantastical world of the award-winning His Dark Materials. He talks to Amanda Mitchison about God, the universe, and what has happened to his famous shed Philip Pullman used to write his fantastical children's books in a grubby shed at the bottom of his garden in north Oxford. The shed was Pullman's nest. Over the years he had accumulated interesting detritus, and, fearing that he might disrupt the flow of his writing, he had grown a little superstitious about clearing it out. Journalists enjoyed describing the fly-blown awfulness of it - the cobwebs, the dusty bric-à-brac, the masks, the posters and children's drawings, the defunct computer garlanded in plastic flowers, the faded flowery curtain, the giant 6ft fluffy rat.

Pullman has an article in the New York Times today on Halloween and writing about fantasy:

Tonight is Halloween, All Hallows' Eve, a time of ghosts and spirits walking by night . . . which leads me naturally to think about literary realism, and about politics. How can you write in a truthful and realistic way about something that doesn't exist?...

ACTORS and architects celebrated the beginnings of the first theatre in the UK to be built for children. Playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn - president of the new Unicorn Theatre - was at the South Bank site on Thursday to see the laying of the first brick.

He was joined by (...) author Philip Pullman (...).

The kind people of the National Theatre sent us an interesting interview with Philip Pullman from the Times.

Among other things, it mentions The Book of Dust:

"He is hard at work on (...) The Book of Dust, which continues Lyra’s story when she’s about 16."

Lyra´s Oxford:

"In a novel, writer and reader collaborate to create; in Lyra and the Birds, Lyra learns that things are not always what they seem. “Lyra and the Birds is about learning to read a little more clearly,”

Read the complete interview below.

This is a very interesting article, about how children are being denied to visit theatres on educational trips because schools fear that will cause them to drop in the league tables.

Pullman says: 'This is dreadful. These experiences are genuinely part of an education, not a luxury extra for middleclass children. They're desperately important for everyone.'

CBBC Newsround is running a contest, and the winner will be allowed to go to Oxford and interview Philip Pullman on the 1sr of November. All you have to do is answer this simple question: "What kind of animal is Lord Asriel´s dæmon?". I guess you all know the answer... I mean... who doesn't know what kind of animal my dæmon is...

Anyway, click here to submit your answer.