50 Facts About Philip Pullman

Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman was born on 19 October 1946 and is an English writer.

Philip Pullman's books include the fantasy trilogy Philip Pullman's Dark Materials and The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, a fictionalised biography of Jesus.

Philip Pullman was knighted in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to literature.

Philip Pullman was born in Norwich, England, the son of Audrey Evelyn Pullman and Royal Air Force pilot Alfred Outram Pullman.

In 1954, when Philip Pullman was seven, his father, an RAF pilot, was killed in a plane crash in Kenya, being posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Philip Pullman's mother remarried the following year and, following a move to North Wales, Pullman discovered comics, including Superman and Batman.

Philip Pullman continues to enjoy the medium, citing Herge's Adventures of Tintin as an influence.

Philip Pullman was pretty big over here from the '30s onwards.

From 1965, Philip Pullman attended Exeter College, Oxford, receiving a Third Class BA in 1968.

Philip Pullman married Judith Speller in 1970 and they have two sons.

Philip Pullman stopped teaching shortly after the publication of The Ruby in the Smoke, a Victorian mystery and the first book in the Sally Lockhart tetralogy.

Between 1988 and 1996, Philip Pullman taught part-time at Westminster College, Oxford, continuing to write children's stories.

Philip Pullman continues to deliver talks and writes occasionally for The Guardian, including writing and lecturing about education, in which he is often critical of unimaginative education policies.

Philip Pullman was awarded a CBE in the New Year's Honours list in 2004.

Philip Pullman returned to fairy tales with The Scarecrow and His Servant, which won the Silver Smarties Prize.

In 2012, during a break from writing The Book of Dust, Philip Pullman was asked by Penguin Classics to curate 50 of Grimms' classic fairytales, from their compendium of over 200 stories.

Philip Pullman's Dark Materials is a trilogy consisting of Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

Philip Pullman was influenced by Socrates's daimon, described in Plato's Apology of Socrates.

Philip Pullman has written three companion pieces to the trilogy: Lyra's Oxford, Once Upon a Time in the North and Serpentine.

Philip Pullman refers to another, which will expand the character Will Parry, as the "green book".

Philip Pullman has narrated unabridged audiobooks of the three novels in the His Dark Materials trilogy; with a full cast.

Philip Pullman has said that the new series is neither sequel, nor prequel, but an "equel".

Philip Pullman has been a vocal campaigner on a number of issues related to books and politics.

Philip Pullman believes that children deserve quality literature, and that there isn't a clear demarcation between children's and adult literature.

Philip Pullman is an admirer of Leon Garfield, "someone who put the best of his imagination into everything he wrote", particularly praising The Pleasure Garden.

Philip Pullman disagrees with Richard Dawkins that fairy tales would lead children to believe in magic.

In 2002, to coincide with the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, Philip Pullman was interviewed for a feature in The Guardian on notable republicans.

Philip Pullman has a strong commitment to traditional British civil liberties and is noted for his criticism of growing state authority and government encroachment into everyday life.

In October 2011, Philip Pullman backed a campaign to stop 600 library closures in England, calling it a "war against stupidity".

In January 2020, Philip Pullman called for literate people to boycott the newly minted Brexit 50p coin due to the omission of the Oxford comma in its slogan "Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations".

In January 2016, Philip Pullman resigned as patron of the Oxford Literary Festival in support of the Society of Author's campaign for writers to be paid fees at festivals and drew attention to the poor remuneration of writers.

On 10 August 2021, Philip Pullman tweeted a response to what he wrongly thought was criticism of Kate Clanchy's teaching memoir Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me.

Philip Pullman resigned his presidency, later stating that the management committee urging him to apologise for something he hadn't done had been a factor in his decision to stand down.

Philip Pullman later criticised Harris for her "facetious and flippant" public comments and stated that the Society of Authors had become a "vehicle for gesture politics" and called for external review and reform of the organisation.

Philip Pullman has referred to himself as knowingly "of the Devil's party", a reference to William Blake's revisionist view of Milton in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

Philip Pullman is a supporter of Humanists UK and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.

Alan Jacobs said that in His Dark Materials Philip Pullman replaced the theist world-view of John Milton's Paradise Lost with a Rousseauist one.

Philip Pullman was flattered and asked his publisher to include quotes from Caldecott's article in his next book.

Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia; Philip Pullman has criticised the Narnia books as religious propaganda.

However, he was more critical of The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, accusing Philip Pullman of being a "Protestant atheist" for supporting the teachings of Christ but being critical of organised religion.

Philip Pullman has found support from some Christians, most notably Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, who argued that Philip Pullman's attacks focus on the constraints and dangers of dogmatism and the use of religion to oppress, not on Christianity itself.

Williams recommended His Dark Materials for discussion in religious education classes, and said that "to see large school-parties in the audience of the Philip Pullman plays at the National Theatre is vastly encouraging".

Philip Pullman reiterated that it was useless to "become censorious about [religion], to say there is no God".

Philip Pullman mentioned that The Book of Dust is based on the "extreme danger of putting power into the hands of those who believe in some absolute creed, whether that is Christianity or Islam or Marxism".

Philip Pullman is a patron of the Shakespeare Schools Festival, a charity that enables school children across the UK to perform Shakespeare in professional theatres.

Philip Pullman was a joint-winner of the New English Library's Young Writer's Award in 1972.

In 2005, Philip Pullman won the annual Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award from the Swedish Arts Council, recognising his career contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest sense".

On 23 November 2007, Philip Pullman was made an honorary professor at Bangor University.

Philip Pullman was named a Knight Bachelor in the 2019 New Year's Honours list.

Philip Pullman was awarded a CBE in the New Year's Honours list in 2004.