(1946 -          )

                Philip Pullman was born on October 19, 1946 in Norwich, England. Ever since his childhood, Philip’s family always traveled all over the world, for his father and stepfather were both in the Royal Air Force. For part of his adolescence, Philip lived in Australia, where he learned to tell, listen to, and love stories of all kinds. When Philip was growing up, TV was not as important to kids as it is today. For that reason, children listened to their stories from the radio. Philip enjoyed gangster serials, cowboy serials, and especially ghost stories. Furthermore, in Australia, Philip discovered comic books and immediately fell in love with them. His favorite comics were Superman and Batman, and he adored them just as much as he adored stories on the radio. At age eleven, Philip and his family moved to back to Britain to live in North Whales. There, children were allowed to roam wherever they wanted, and apparently had a sense of their own freedom. Supposedly, this privilege is a big part of Philip’s imagination for stories. Ever since he was a child, Philip believed that he was going to be a writer when he grew up.

            For Philip, the influence in his life to become a writer was his high school English teacher, Miss Enid Jones. She was such a huge impact on his life, and he still sends her copies of his books nowadays. After he left high school, Philip attended Exeter College in Oxford to read English. Subsequently, Philip did various unusual jobs, and then he moved to Oxford to become a teacher. For twelve years, Philip taught at numerous middle schools, and then later on, he moved to Westminster College to become a part- time lecturer. Of the many things he taught, Philip mostly enjoyed enlightening his students on Victorian novels, folk tales, Greek myths, and plenty more. But he particularly took pleasure from teaching a course on how words and pictures fit together. He found this very fascinating and believed it have a big role in a story. However, Philip soon left teaching in order to become a full-time writer.

              Philip’s first novel was intended for adults, but as a teacher, he began to write for children. Some of his stories were based on self-written plays that he created for his own students. Obviously, Philip’s great love for stories and teaching skills eventually paid off when he wrote a trilogy, know as his Dark Materials, that earned him many awards. The three books were called The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. Firstly, The Golden Compass was awarded an American Booksellers Book of the Year Award and was the winner of the Carnegie Medal, which is England’s highest honor for children’s literature. Next, The Subtle Knife was awarded an ALA Best Book for Young Adults Award. Lastly, The Amber Spyglass was the winner of a New York Public Library book for the Teen Age. All three of the books from Philip’s trilogy earned him at least one award and that is one of his greatest accomplishments ever.

- by Eeliac

The Books of Philip Pullman

The Subtle Knife

The Amber Spyglass

The Ruby in the Smoke

The Shadow in the North

The Tiger in the Well

The Broken Bridge

The Tin Princess

The White Mercedes

Count Karlstein

I Was a Rat

Related Links