Philip Pullman Biography and latest books by Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman was born on 19 October, 1946 in Norwich. He is an English author who is famously known for his work in, His Dark Materials Trilogy, a fantasy novel, and a fictional biography of Jesus Christ called, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. In the year 2008, Philip Pullman was listed among the 50 greatest British writers since 1945 by The Times.

Philip Pullman was the son of Audrey Evelyn and Alfred Outram Pullman, who was a pilot in the Royal Air Force. However, in the year 1953, when Pullman was seven years old, his father died in a plane crash. The family then moved to Australia after his mother remarried. In the year 1963, he joined Exeter College in Oxford, where he got a third class in B.A in 1968. In the year 1970, Pullman married Judith Speller and started working as a middle school teacher in Bishop Kirk Middle School in Summertown, North Oxford. His first work as a writer was The Haunted Storm which also won him the New English Library’s Young Writer’s Award in the year 1972. In the year 1978, his first adult-fantasy book, Galatea, was published. This was followed by a children’s book called Count Karlstein in the year 1982. His second children novel was published in the year 1986 which was titled as The Ruby in the Smoke.

In the year 1993 he started writing on his book, His Dark Material, which was later published in the year 1995. This book won him the Carnegie Medal, and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award. This book was a trilogy and the first part was called Northern Lights. The sequel to this was called The Subtle Knife and the last part was The Amber Spyglass. The Amber Spyglass won him the Whitbread Prize for the best children’s book in the year 2002. Following this he wrote complimentary pieces to his famous trilogy which were Lyra’s Oxford and Once Upon a Time in The North. In the year 2005 he was awarded as the joint winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial award for children’s literature.
His book, His Dark Material has been criticized widely by the Catholic Church. There were also critics who were not very happy with this work. But there were people who loved this book a whole lot more than the people hating it. Author, Christopher Hitchens termed Pullman’s novel as a fresh alternative between adult and juvenile fiction.

His next work was The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ. This was also not taken very well by some religious groups but it came out to be a huge success. In the year 2008 he began on his next work, The Book of Dust which was the last of his famous trilogy.

Philip Pullman was awarded the degree of D.Litt (Doctor of Letters) by the University of Oxford.

Submitted by Precious Pheirim.