8 things you might not have known about Philip Pullman

Back in 2017, to coincide with the release of part one of his much anticipated trilogy The Book of Dust, he joined us at the Southbank Centre as part of our London Literature Festival.

And ahead of these two seismic events, we felt it pertinent to give some further context for those perhaps not familiar with the author. So, here are eight things you might not have known about Philip Pullman

He was a teacher before becoming a writer

After reading English at Oxford’s Exeter College the 25-year-old Pullman first became a teacher. He taught at various Middle Schools in the Oxford area before going on to teach at Westminster College, and continues to keep a close eye on the evolution of education, though accepts his moves may not be in-keeping with those prevalent in the profession.

‘I have maintained a passionate interest in education, which leads me occasionally to make foolish and ill-considered remarks alleging that not everything is well in our schools. However, my views on education are eccentric and unimportant’.

Philip Pullman

He sees himself more as a storyteller than a writer

Many authors would perhaps baulk at the suggestion of difference between the two, but not Pullman. In this 2013 interview with Matthew Stadlen for BBC News, Pullman identified him very much of the former, qualifying his answer by stating ‘plot is a very important thing for me.’

Though he wouldn’t consider himself a children’s storyteller

Pullman may often be categorised as a writer of children’s fiction, but his appeal is much broader than that, and the author himself appreciates the way in which having an adult audience helps to avoid belittling younger readers.

‘If you asked what sort of audience I would like, I would say a mixed one, please. Children keep your attention on the story because you want to tell it so clearly that nobody wishes to stop listening. And the adults remind you not to patronize or underestimate the intelligence of the children.’

Philip Pullman, speaking to Slate, November 2015

He named a character in tribute to a victim of the Grenfell Tower fire

In response to the recent tragedy in West London, Pullman joined fellow writers and literary agents in staging an Authors for Grenfell Tower auction, to raise money for those affected by the fire. As part of the auction Pullman offered to name a character in the second instalment of The Book of Dust.

This offer, went onto raise £32,400 of the event’s £150,000 total, after teacher James Clements suggested it be named after his pupil Nur Huda el-Wahabi who had sadly died in the fire. Hundreds of public bidders joined the collective effort to secure the character in Nur Huda’s honour, much to Pullman’s appreciation. ‘Having been a teacher myself, I know how I’d have felt if a pupil of mine had been in some similar disaster.

He is a big fan of comics

Indeed it could be argued that Pullman’s love of storytelling comes from the comics he read as a boy. Having moved to Australia in 1954, following the death of his father, the young Pullman became fascinated with the American comics he couldn’t get in Britain. He duly lost himself in their energy and the swiftness and ease of which the story could be followed. Today Pullman remains a champion of comic books and maintains that our inherent contempt for the visual deserves overturning.

‘Comics are a wonderful form. You can do so much with it… Children take to comics naturally and are able to talk about them with great freedom and knowledge.’

Philip Pullman, speaking in The Guardian, May 2016

His former writing space was up for Shed of the Year

No, seriously. The converted shed in which Pullman wrote much of the trilogy His Dark Materials, was in the running, in the workshop and studio category, for the 2017 accolade. It’s a beautiful and significant space, yet sadly it was deemed no greater than a Scottish railway enthusiast’s model station, and was pipped for the overall title by a mushroom-shaped summerhouse. Ah well, least Philip has his writing to fall back on.

His daemon would be a magpie

Daemons, if you have not read Pullman’s His Dark Materials, are fictional manifestations of a character’s inner-self, that take an animal form. And though in interviews he has been quick to remind us that you don’t get to choose your own daemon, Pullman feels his would encapsulate the storyteller’s urge to collect and work with things that grab their attention.

He considers The Book of Dust to be not a prequel, or sequel, but an ‘equel’

Though The Book of Dust is most certainly tied to His Dark Materials through characters, and of course Lyra, Pullman has resisted the pressure to make it either a prequel, or a sequel, choosing instead to set this much anticipated trilogy in a time and space very much of its own.