Philip Pullman And His Dark Materials

Philip Pullman was born in Norwich in 1946 and recieved his education in a number of locations; England, Zimbabwe and Australia before finally settling in North Wales. He recieved his secondary school education at Ysgol Ardudwy, Harlech then moved on to Exeter College, Oxford for English.

He became a techer at the age of 25 and taught and different Oxford secondary schools before moving to Westminster College in 1986 where he spent eight years teaching the B.Ed. course. He still remains passionate about teaching.

Pullman has written and published nearly twenty books. Most of his books are classed as children's books but his audience is generally much wider than that regardless of the book's classifications as people of all ages can enjoy his exceptional work.

His first book was Count Karlstein which was followed by Ruby In The Smoke. Ruby In The Smoke was recently made into a TV programme on UK television.

Philip Pullman however is most famous for His Dark Materials trilogy, The Northern Lights (Golden Compass in the USA), The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. These books have won several awards including the Whitbread Book of the Year Award which was the first time in the history of that prize that it was given to a children's book.

Pullman enjoys drawing and woodworking as well as playing the piano when he is not writing.

So what exactly makes me love the Dark Materials trilogy so much? Well for starters, Philip used real science as a backing for many of the plot elements. I actually have a book dedicated solely to the science behind his Dark Materials. Amazing!

Not only are the books full of real world science and theories, they also delve into the taboo of religion in a controlled yet hard hitting way. They dare to offer an opinion of the world and it's religion that many people would disagree with, and for that reason, I love them.