Illustration by Jody HewgillThe British author Philip Pullman was raised on the tall tales of his grandpa, an Anglican vicar, but his own life has taken plenty of dramatic turns. When he was seven, his mother received a telegram: His father, a Royal Air Force pilot, had gone down over Kenya. "There's a suspicion that he might have been drinking too much or he might have crashed on purpose because he was in all sorts of trouble—women trouble and money trouble and God knows what else," recalls Pullman, who is now 66.
The family relocated to Australia and finally to North Wales, where Pullman devoured books and "grew up intellectually, and emotionally, I suppose." He later attended Oxford and then spent years teaching English, honing his storytelling chops on captive middle-schoolers and publishing a dozen or so politely received books and plays before hitting pay dirt with His Dark Materials, the wildly popular young-adult trilogy consisting of The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass.
HDM, which has sold well over 15 million copies and been translated into at least 39 languages, has earned Pullman some of the most prestigious awards in children's literature. In this epic twist on Adam and Eve—replete with angels, witches, and ursine warriors—the church is a malevolent force, characters have animal soulmates called dæmons, and, far from sinful, the loss of innocence of protagonists Lyra and Will is a saving grace.
The series (a sequel called The Book of Dust is in the works) and Pullman's public antipathy for organized religion (never mind 2010's The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, wherein Jesus is betrayed by his weak-willed twin brother) have raised holy hackles; the Catholic League complained that Pullman is "using a fantasy to sell atheism to kids."
I reached the author at home in Oxford to discuss his new book—a retelling of Fairy Tales From the Brothers Grimm—his writerly superstitions, and what he'd like to ask Jesus over dinner. (Pullman's spot illustrations are used with his permission.)
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