Philip Pullman
About Author
Philip Pullman is one of the best-known children's authors living today. He spent much of his childhood on board ships as both his father and stepfather were in the Royal Air Force. He learnt to read whilst at sea, and considers his greatest influence to have been his grandfather. A clergyman in the Church of England, he was a marvellous storyteller, and instilled in Philip a great love of stories. Philip's grandfather died before Philip had his first book published, but he still measures what he writes against his judgement.
Philip read English at Oxford University, and for a long time was a teacher. His first book Count Karlstein was in fact a play, created for the pupils at his school. Philip has also written television scripts, which he enjoys as he claims it is less solitary than working on novels.
The first part of his ground-breaking His Dark Materials trilogy was published in 1995. Part I, Northern Lights won the Guardian Prize for Children's Fiction, and went on to win the coveted Carnegie Medal the following year. The next book, The Subtle Knife was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. The Amber Spyglass was published in 2001 and was the first children's book ever to win the overall Whitbread Book Prize. This led to a dramatic rise in sales, and increase in the amount of media interest and coverage of Philip. Sales of the trilogy have sold millions worldwide, and the book was followed by a stage adaptation and a film, The Golden Compass.
Philip Pullman lives with his wife Jude near Oxford. He used to write in a shed at the bottom of the garden, but now has a special writing room. He writes on very specific paper, and makes prolific use of the smallest yellow post-it notes on which he plans out the plot for each page before he starts writing. He also sets himself a target of words to write each day.
In autumn 2002 Philip was awarded the Eleanor Farjeon prize in recognition for his enormous contribution to the world of children's books.
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