Philip Pullman

Norwich, Harlech and Exeter College, Oxford

Pullman was born in Norwich on 19 October 1946. He went to secondary school in Harlech, in north Wales, and in 1965 went up to Exeter College, Oxford, to read English, graduating in 1968. He later took a teaching qualification at Weymouth College of Education. Exeter College made him an honorary fellow, and it is often named as the model for Jordan College, the Oxford college where Lyra grows up in Northern Lights.

Middle Schools in Oxford and Westminster College

He married Judith Speller, a teacher, on 15 August 1970. They have two sons. Pullman began teaching English at 25 at middle schools in Oxford. Contemporary Authors lists Ivanhoe, Bishop Kirk and Marston middle schools between 1970 and 1986.

He then lectured part time at Westminster College, Oxford, training future teachers. The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award gives that period as eight years. The dates of his departure differ between sources: Anglia Ruskin University says he left in 1996, while Contemporary Authors gives 1988 to 1995.

Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass

The trilogy that became His Dark Materials appeared over five years: Northern Lights in 1995, published in the United States in 1996 as The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife in 1997 and The Amber Spyglass in 2000. Northern Lights won the Carnegie Medal, which Anglia Ruskin University dates to 1995 and Contemporary Authors to 1996, and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1996. In 2007 it was named the Carnegie of Carnegies.

The Amber Spyglass won the Whitbread Book of the Year, the first children's book to take the overall prize. The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award and Contemporary Authors date that award to 2001; Anglia Ruskin University gives 2002.

Religion runs through all three books. Pullman told NPR that he was never chiefly interested in belief itself: "what I was writing about was always the politics of religion and not the content, the faith, the theology, so much as the politics."

Two Plays at the National Theatre and a BBC Series

The trilogy was staged as two plays at the National Theatre in London and later adapted for television by the BBC and HBO, with Ruth Wilson as Mrs. Coulter. Pullman has described himself as a storyteller first: "I think of myself a storyteller rather than a novelist or a writer of literary fiction, belonging among the tellers of folk tales, fairy tales, ballads, and myths," he said in the 2025 announcement of the final volume.

La Belle Sauvage and the Return to Lyra in 2017

In February 2017 Pullman announced a second trilogy set in Lyra's world, The Book of Dust. The first volume, La Belle Sauvage, came out that October and was named Waterstones book of the year. The second volume, The Secret Commonwealth, followed, and The Rose Field closed the sequence. On publication day in 2025 he told NPR that he would not repeat the ending of the first trilogy: "It's a very good ending ... But I couldn't do it again."

The Astrid Lindgren Award, a CBE and a Knighthood

In 2005 Pullman received the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. He was appointed CBE in the 2004 New Year Honours and knighted for services to literature in the honours list announced on 28 December 2018. He said at the time: "I believe the profession of letters should be recognised as having a proper place in the life of the nation, along with science, and sport, and music, and scholarship, and many other human activities."

Leaving the Society of Authors Presidency in 2022

Pullman was elected president of the Society of Authors in 2013. He stood down in March 2022, after 35 years as a member, and stayed on its council. He gave the reason in a statement: "When it became clear that statements of mine were being regarded as if they represented the views of the Society as a whole ... and that I was being pressed by people both in and out of the Society to retract them and apologise, I realised that I would not be free to express my personal opinions as long as I remained President."

No dated estimate of his wealth from Forbes, Bloomberg or the Sunday Times Rich List exists, and no company filings under his name were found, so this article gives no net worth figure.

Sources

• We met Lyra in 'The Golden Compass.' Philip Pullman's new book finishes her story : NPR
• Philip Pullman Announces Epic Finale to Lyra's Story in Vol. Three of THE BOOK OF DUST | Penguin Random House
• Exeter College to Welcome Sir Philip Pullman (1965, English) to Celebrate Final 'Book of Dust' Novel - Exeter College
• Knighthood for Honorary Fellow Philip Pullman (1965, English) - Exeter College
• Author Philip Pullman Announces A Follow-Up Trilogy To 'His Dark Materials' : The Two-Way : NPR
• Philip Pullman (alma.se)
• Philip Pullman - ARU
• Philip Pullman | Encyclopedia.com
• Philip Pullman - Biography, Books & Reading Guides | BookBrowse
• Pullman, Donaldson, Riddell and Atwood in New Year's Honours
• Pullman Steps Down as SoA President - Locus