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Posted by Ian on April 20, 2008 at 4:16 pm
 You may remember that we reported back in December that Oxford City Council had rejected a planning application to redevelop the Castle Mill boatyard in the Jericho area of Oxford; however, according to the Oxford Mail, the developers in question, Spring Residential, have announced they intend to appeal against the decision. This is highly unpopular with many locals who have manned a long-running campaign against the proposal with support and patronage from Philip Pullman and others such as actor Kevin Whately (Morse, Lewis). It is rumoured that this latest turn of events will push the cost of the inquiries surrounding the proposal to over GBP 1 million of tax payer’s money. The hearing is expected to take place towards the end of the year. Read the article in full here.
Posted by Ian on April 3, 2008 at 9:38 pm
The Times reports on a religious debate which took place at the Oxford Literary Festival in which Philip Pullman was a participant. Amongst others taking part were Sarfraz Manzoor and Timothy Garton. Debate varied from the case of the anti-islamic Danish cartoon, to the work of Pullman himself who was unfortunately suffering from a heavy cold. Pullman was directly questioned by one audience member on the Golden Compass movie and the religious aspects found within and why New Line Cinema had seemingly played down such debate to avoid controversy. Pullman did concede that the questioner had a point and also told the audience how last year an Oxford mosque had received hate mail which had been signed by “Philip Pullman”. You can read the report in full here.
Posted by Ian on April 2, 2008 at 3:54 am
The Oxford Mail reports on Philip Pullman’s appearance at the Oxford Literary Festival last night to discuss his new book, Once Upon A Time In The North, at which he was interviewed by journalist James Naughtie on a range of themes, but primarily his new novella. Over 700 people had packed into Oxford Town Hall to hear Pullman speak, including many younger fans. You can read about the evening in full here.
Posted by jessia on March 20, 2008 at 8:20 am
Philip Pullman will be speaking at the Oxford Literary Festival Monday, 31st March to launch upcoming title Once Upon a Time in the North. “The book recounts the very first meeting of these two heroes - Lee Scoresby and his hare daemon, Hester, crash land their trading balloon on to Novy Odense, a port in the far Arctic North, and so find themselves right in the middle of a political powder keg that threatens to explode into a street-fight. Honour is at stake and Lee is not a man to duck a matter of honour.”
Tickets (£15, or £10 for children) are available at the Oxford Playhouse.
Posted by jessia on February 16, 2008 at 11:01 pm
The Centre for Early Modern studies at the University of Oxford is hosting an exhibit on John Milton celebrating the Quatercentenary of his birth, curated by Sharon Achinstein. Citizen Milton will show at the Bodleian Library until April. “The title of [Pullman’s] series [is] taken from Milton’s Paradise Lost, where ‘His dark materials’ of Chaos are there ‘to create more Worlds.’” Click here for more information on the exhibit. Thank you to Kinders for the tip.
Posted by Ian on February 16, 2008 at 9:41 pm
According to the Oxford Mail, Philip Pullman is to appear at the Oxford Literary Festival, to discuss amongst other things his new book Once Upon A Time In The North which is due for release on April 4th. “Mr Pullman’s appearance at Oxford Town Hall on March 31 will ensure a memorable launch for both his book and the festival.” Hosted by Christ Church, the festival will see many speakers and authors-in-residence - including a strong representation of local writers - including playwright Tom Stoppard (originally hired to draft The Golden Compass’ screenplay), geneticist Richard Dawkins ( The God Delusion), PD James ( The Children of Men), fiction critic Peter Kemp, and many more. Read more.
Posted by Ian on December 13, 2007 at 11:49 pm
The Oxford Times reports that plans to redevelop the Castle Mill boatyard in the Jericho area of Oxford (which is where parts of Northern Lights are set) were on Tuesday evening thrown out by Oxford City Council.
Councillors were met by a standing ovation at the end of meeting, which had standing room only as protesters packed in to plead their case. There was further delight when the council produced a further five reasons against the proposal, on top of the original four submitted by Oxford planning officers.
Philip Pullman spoke to the 150-strong audience and described the proposed development: “It displays an arrogance of scale. It will fundamentally alter the whole appearance of the canal in both directions. It’s like finding a bird’s nest and throwing a brick into it.”
You can read the article in full here.
Posted by Ian on December 8, 2007 at 6:11 pm
As we reported some weeks ago, Philip Pullman will appear at the Phoenix Cinema in Oxford tomorrow for a one hour discussion about the movie. This is sold out. However, you can still get hold of tickets to see him speaking in Oxford via satellite in a number of other Picturehouse cinemas around the country. You can see Pullman speaking in the following towns and cities around the UK:
London, Aberdeen, Bath, Brighton, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Exeter, Henley-on-Thames, Liverpool, Norwich, Southampton, Stratford-upon-Avon and York.
The conversation begins at 4.40pm and tickets cost around 7 GBP. Read here for further details.
Posted by Ian on December 3, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Last weekend’s Sunday Times featured in its travel section an article entitled Lyra’s Oxford, which previews scheduled tours of Oxford run by the tourist information centre through Lyra and Philip Pullman’s Oxford. The tour which lasts around two hours, takes in many of the landmarks featured in His Dark Materials, from the Pitt-Rivers museum, to the Botanic Gardens. Tours will take place on June 13th, July 25th and September 5th next year (with further dates added if demanded), with tickets priced at 7.50GBP per person. You can read the article in full and find more information here.
Of course, it isn’t always necessary to join an organised tour - you could always do your own, as writer Ann Giles did last July. You can read her own account of her ‘Materials day out’ here.
Posted by Ian on December 3, 2007 at 8:25 pm
The Oxford Mail reported recently that Oxford tourism chief believes the impending release of The Golden Compass movie will push Oxford through the 10 million mark in terms of visitors to the city of Oxford in 2008, and that the film will help generate an extra 15 million GBP over the course of the year. The Golden Compass is not the first film to have generated additional tourism for the city, with parts of the Harry Potter films having been filmed in Oxford, as well as the Inspector Morse television series. Read the full article here.
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You may remember that we reported back in December that Oxford City Council had rejected a planning application to redevelop the Castle Mill boatyard in the Jericho area of Oxford; however, according to the Oxford Mail, the developers in question, Spring Residential, have announced they intend to appeal against the decision. This is highly unpopular with many locals who have manned a long-running campaign against the proposal with support and patronage from Philip Pullman and others such as actor Kevin Whately (Morse, Lewis). It is rumoured that this latest turn of events will push the cost of the inquiries surrounding the proposal to over GBP 1 million of tax payer’s money. The hearing is expected to take place towards the end of the year. Read the article in full here.
