Philip Pullman was born on October 19th, 1946. His father, a pilot in the Royal Air Force was killed early in Philip's life, leaving him to be raised by his mother and stepfather, as well as his grandfather who was a clergyman in rural England.

Pullman studied for a time at Exeter College, in Oxford (he has said that Exeter has been his primary model for Jordan College in the books). He taught middle-school English for a few years before becoming a part time lecturer at Westminster College, Oxford.

His first well known books were the Sally Lockhart trilogy published from 1985-1992 (which include The Ruby in the Smoke, The Shadow in the North, and The Tiger in the Well). In 1996, Philip Pullman published The Golden Compass (also entitled 'Northern Lights' in countries receiving British copies of books), marking the start of his ambitious "fantasy" trilogy, 'His Dark Materials'. It was followed in 1997 by The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass in 2000. Pullman is currently working on a companion volume to the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy (which gets its name from John Milton's 'Paradise Lost'), called The Book of Dust. He seems quite bent on having absolutely nothing to do with the film adaptations that are currently being written and produced by New Line Cinemas (who were responsible for the Lord of the Rings movies).

Pullman lives in Oxford, England with his wife Jude. He also has two sons, Jamie (who is a viola player) and Tom (who is currently studying music). [For a more detailed biography, see Merlyn's 'In a Handful of Dust']