John Granger, doing an analysis of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets from a Christian point of view claims in it that Pullman was the real life equivalent of Gilderoy Lockhart, certainly one of the most unpleasant characters ever put into a novel.
This comparison seems to me as a poorly hidden attack of Pullman's view of the Church, which is fastly unveiled as insubstantial by the author's anti-women, as well as pseudo-christian behaviour shown in the text.
Read parts of the text below:
Rowling hates Gilderoy's kind of fiction; it's everything her fiction is not. In this 'second book within the book', then, she offers this character to her critics as a foil to her own work. Children's literature that does not come from true belief and out of genuine love and concern for readers demeans them and distracts them from spiritual combat readiness. There are no 'stock responses' in Gilderoy's books, no right alignment of soul, and certainly no baptism of the imagination in Christian doctrines and symbols. Rather than Christ, the true king, all we find in Lockhart's books is himself: 'Gilderoy', the 'false king'.
So who is the real life model for Gilderoy Lockhart? My guess is Philip Pullman, author of The Dark Materials trilogy and many other, much admired children's books. I have a few reasons for guessing Pullman, some good, some silly. Let's start with the 'off the wall' stuff.
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Every person I have met or read that loves his books (to include my daughters) is female. Here are a couple of raves from reviews written in the New York Times - by women:
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