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The Oxford boatyard which helped to inspire one of Britain's most celebrated works of modern fiction was yesterday cleared of protesters and their canal boats by bailiffs who brought in a mobile crane to lift seven barges back into the water.

But the eviction by British Waterways at the Castle Mill yard drew strong criticism from local people resisting development of the yard for flats, and from Philip Pullman, the author of His Dark Materials, who set part of his trilogy in the Jericho area of the city, the location of the yard.

Philip Pullman has posted a new message on his website, the first since February. In it, he discusses the progress of the film adaptation, including the auditions for Lyra and the decision to bring Chris Weitz back in as director.

Most imporantly, he writes that he has read Chris Weitz' script for The Golden Compass. It would seem that it's indeed fully finished now.

Read Philip Pullman's May Message

Thanks to jparry!

The Times' Caroline Gascoigne reports from a vibrant Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival.

You won’t like this, I know,” beamed Lewis Wolpert to one of the many packed audiences at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, “but the only function of your brain, from an evolutionary point of view, is to control physical movement.”

We laughed; but Oxford last week couldn’t have provided a better demonstration of how much further we have developed. The professor’s own highly evolved brain wasn’t the only one being put to myriad uses. All around the festival’s new home in the glorious setting of Christ Church, poets, bio-graphers, diplomats, scientists, novelists, historians, lawyers and journalists — plus a princess and a university chancellor — met, mingled, debated, agreed, fulminated, argued and revealed their passions in a way to gladden the heart of any Darwinist or Dawkinsite.

Waterstone's takeover of Ottakar's now likely, Pullman leads authors dismayed at approval

Several of Britain's leading authors reacted with dismay yesterday after the way was cleared for HMV, the books and music group which owns the high street chain Waterstone's, to take over Ottakar's, the specialist books company.

Small retailers warned that the deal would be another step towards "clone- town Britain", further eroding the diversity of the high street, restricting consumer choice and, ultimately, leading to higher prices.

IN THESE days of iPods, game consoles and Google, the names Joseph Heller, Erich Kastner and John Milton may be lost on the younger generation. But three of the country’s most influential writers believe they are the type of authors children should have read by the time they leave school.

Asked by the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) to nominate their top ten books, the authors Philip Pullman and J. K. Rowling and Andrew Motion, the Poet Laureate, choose a similar array of books and writers.

Pullman's appearance on the BBC World Service World Book Club can now be streamed from the BBC website.

BBC World Book Club

Philip Pullman has posted his New Year's message on his website. He talks about Global Warming, travel, and breifly mentions The Book of Dust.

Philip Pullman's message

Thanks Ian for the alert.

This article by Laura Miller on "Miss Goddard's Grave," Philip Pullman's religious education lecture at the University of East Anglia, discusses Pullman's religious notions and beliefs of moral education and its relationship to His Dark Materials. Thanks to adriana for the heads up!

Every year at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, England, a guest is invited to speak on the subject of religion and education. Sometimes, a prominent bishop is asked to deliver a lecture, but, as a rule, the event isn’t exactly a big draw. This year, the auditorium was filled, and another room, with a video feed, had to be set up for those who couldn’t fit into the main hall. The speaker, Philip Pullman, is fervently admired for his sophisticated trilogy of children’s novels called, collectively, “His Dark Materials.” In Britain, his books have sold millions of copies, and his often contentious essays on subjects ranging from censorship to education—“We need to ensure that children are not forced to waste their time on barren rubbish” is a typical declaration—appear regularly in the London papers.

Philip Pullman, one of our leading children's authors, explains how he gave a new sprinkling of magic to the Christmas classic Aladdin

I wish I had written Aladdin. But I had a greater privilege than that: I re-wrote it. In a sense, we write nothing original and everything we compose is a re-ordering of events, scenes and ideas that other storytellers put together long before we were born. If someone composed an entirely new story, perhaps we wouldn't recognise it as a story at all. It would be like Wittgenstein's lion: if it could speak, we wouldn't understand what it said.

As more people define themselves by their spiritual beliefs, there are controversial plans to introduce legislation to curb incitement to religious hatred. Philip Pullman asks if the law will distinguish between a rational analysis of theology and a call for violence.

Is the proposed "religious hatred" bill a bad idea? Of course it is. Of course it should be opposed. That's my instinctive reaction. But in trying to think about why I react like that, I've found myself wondering more and more about the question of "identity", because that seems to be at the heart of the problem. Is our "identity" a function of what we do, or what we are, or both?

This wonderful interview was conducted by our very own IanG, so any compliments can be PM’ed to his address. Images are at the bottom of the article.

As I wait for Philip Pullman to arrive, I’m unsure quite what to expect from him. We’ve all read his books, we’ve read his newspaper columns, we’ve heard his views on subjects ranging from religion to education to literature (or are they all entwined?); yet what sort of person will he be?

And my questions, how will he react to them? Are they good enough? I’ve spent time checking the FAQ section at his website, and cross referenced them with the results of two polls online, and my own ideas. Does that make them original?

Philip Pullman is going to be featured on the BBC's World Book Club program.

The BBC was so kind as to inform us of this event, and noted that they could probably ask Philip Pullman some questions by members of this website.

Naturaly we are thrilled at this opportunity, so please send your questions to Lord Asriel ether by email (admin[AT]hisdarkmaterials.org), or via our feedback form, or as a private message.

Send your questions to Lord Asriel no later than November 10th

Margaret Speaker Yuan announces the release of her book, Philip Pullman.

The book, aimed at middle school readers, is a biography of the award-winning author and playwright.

Pullman's fascinating life journey, from Africa to Australia to Wales and eventually Oxford, makes captivating reading for any fan of his books.

The biography is available from the publisher, Chelsea House or from Amazon.

Author Philip Pullman has attacked plans to turn The Chronicles of Narnia into a movie series, calling CS Lewis' books "racist" and "misogynistic".

The first film in the series - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - is due to be released in December.

His Dark Materials author Pullman said the 1950s stories were "reactionary".

"If the Disney corporation wants to market this film as a great Christian story, they'll just have to tell lies about it," he told The Observer.

The Tories could sweep back to power on a tide of old Labour votes with some old-fashioned ideas now without a champion, according to Philip Pullman

I've noticed that the Conservative party has been rather at a loss recently. It doesn't know what it stands for or what it ought to be proposing to do in government.

So in a friendly spirit of helpfulness, I thought I'd point out some policies that resonate with old-fashioned ideas of the sort that a truly conservative party might well feel at home with. By good luck, these policies are without a current champion, and any party taking them up would find a natural body of support ready and waiting.