The Writers of Wales Database

PULLMAN, PHILIP

Website: http://www.philip-pullman.com

Philip Pullman is the author of over twenty children's novels, and has also published two play adaptations. He was born in Norwich in 1946, and educated in England, Zimbabwe and Australia before his family settled in North Wales. He attended secondary school at Ysgol Ardudwy, Harlech, then went to Exeter College Oxford to read English. He taught in secondary schools, and later at Oxford University before becoming a full-time writer in 1996. Philip now lives in Oxford.

His first book, The Haunted Storm, won the New English Library's Young Writer's Award in 1972 and Northern Lights (Scholastic, 1995) won the Carnegie Medal and Guardian Children’s Fiction Award in 1995. The Amber Spyglass (Scholastic, 2000) won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award in 2002. He received the Eleanor Farjeon Award for children’s literature in 2002 and was awarded a CBE in the 2004 New Year's Honours list. In 2005 he was co-winner of the Astrid Lindgren Award, the world’s most prestigious prize for children’s literature, and co-judged the Christopher Tower Poetry Prize with Gillian Clarke. The first book in His Dark Materials trilogy (published as The Golden Compass in the USA), was adapted for film in 2007. It starred Nicola Kidman and Daniel Craig, and earned a BAFTA and an Academy Award for visual effects. He was recently made an honorary professor at Bangor University, and in 2009 was awarded the degree of D. Litt., honoris causa, by the Oxford University. Philip continues to occasionally contribute to the Guardian and is currently writing The Book of Dust, a sequel to His Dark Materials trilogy. His work has been translated into 37 languages. Philip is a Member of Academi.

Reviews:
With respect to His Dark Materials triology

”…His prose has texture and flexibility, like excellent fabric. And he gives us so much. Suspense of course, but such degrees of pleasure, excitement…and grief…”
Margo Jefferson, The New York Times Book Review

”…The language is as grandiose as the themes: a lake, for instance, gives off ‘mephitic vapours’. And the horrors are unmitigated, from dead bodies that are eaten to harpies that rot and stink even as they live…”
Nicolette Jones, The Times


Selected Publications:
The Haunted Storm (New English Library, 1972)
Galatea (Dutton, 1976)
Count Karlstein (Doubleday, 1982)
How to be Cool (William Heinemann, 1987)
Spring-Heeled Jack (Doubleday, 1989)
The Broken Bridge (Macmillan Children's Books, 1990)
The White Mercedes (Macmillan, 1992)
The Firework-Maker’s Daughter (Doubleday, 1995)
Clockwork or All Wound Up (Doubleday, 1996)
The Wonderful Story of Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp (Scholastic, 1995)
Mossycoat (Scholastic, 1998)
I Was a Rat (Doubleday, 1999)
Puss in Boots (Transworld, 2000)
The Scarecrow and His Servant (Doubleday, 2004)
The Butterfly Tattoo (Macmillan, 2005)
Whodunnit? Utterly Baffling Detective Stories (Kingfisher, 2007)
Four Tales (Doubleday, 2010)

New Cut Gang
Thunderbolt's Waxwork (Viking's Children's Books, 1994)
The Gas Fitter's Ball (Viking's Children's Books, 1995)

His Dark Materials trilogy
Northern Lights / The Golden Compass (Scholastic, 1995)
The Subtle Knife (Scholastic, 1999)
The Amber Spyglass (Scholastic, 2000)

His Dark Materials spin-offs
Lyra’s Oxford (David Fickling Books, 2003)
Once Upon A Time in the North (David Fickling Books, 2008)

Sally Lockheart quartet
The Shadow in the North (Scholastic, 2004)
The Tiger in the Well (Scholastic, 2004)
The Tin Princess (Scholastic, 2004)
The Ruby in the Smoke (Scholastic, 2004)

Plays
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Oxford University Press, 1990)
Sherlock Holmes and the Limehouse Horror (Nelson Thornes, 1992)

For adults
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ (Canongate Books, 2010)



Count Karlstein (Doubleday, 1982)

No one in the village of Karlstein dares to leave their homes on All Souls' Eve - the night Zamiel the Demon Huntsman comes to claim his prey. But the evil Count Karlstein has struck a terrible bargain with Zamiel, placing the lives of his young nieces, Lucy and Charlotte, in danger. Their only hope lies with Hildi, a castle maidservant. One thing is certain - the Demon Huntsman will not return to his dark wood unsatisfied.

For ages 8-11

To purchase this title from amazon.co.uk, please click on its front cover




Northern Lights (Scholastic, 1995)

Lyra's life is already sufficiently interesting for a novel before she eavesdrops on a presentation by her uncle Lord Asriel to his colleagues in the Jordan College faculty, Oxford. The college, famed for its leadership in experimental theology, is funding Lord Asriel's research into the heretical possibility of the existence of worlds unlike Lyra's own, where everyone is born with a familiar animal companion, magic of a kind works, the Tartars are threatening to overrun Muscovy, and the Pope is a puritanical Protestant. Set in an England familiar and strange, Philip Pullman's lively, taut story is a must-read and re-read for fantasy lovers of all ages. The world-building is outstanding, from the subtle hints of the 1898 Tokay to odd quirks of language to the panserbjorne, while determined, clever Lyra is strongly reminiscent of Joan Aiken's Dido Twite.

For ages 10+

To purchase this title from amazon.co.uk, please click on its front cover




The Butterfly Tattoo (Macmillan, 2005)

The Butterfly Tattoo is an engrossing and agonising thriller. What starts out as an apparently harmless holiday job for 17-year-old Oxford 'A' level student Chris Marshall, slowly but surely turns into something quite other. Unhappy and traumatised by the break up of his parents' marriage, things start looking up for Chris when he falls in love with the beautiful, emotionally bruised Jenny. But then his boss's dangerously shady past slowly but surely starts catching up with him and before he knows it Chris has become the innocent cause of death and disaster.

For ages 12+

To purchase this title from amazon.co.uk, please click on its front cover