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Posted by Ian on April 18, 2008 at 6:30 pm
According to website Abebooks, books by Philip Pullman are the 7th most collectible available. Alongside him in the top ranks of rare and collectible books are J.K. Rowling, Tolkien and Shakespeare. The data, which is based on 2007 sales, notes that a British signed first edition of Northern Lights sold for US$3500 at the height of Golden Compass movie mania last year. You can read more here. Thanks to community members Cittagazze for the tip off!
Posted by jessia on March 5, 2008 at 8:50 am
The Toronto Star reports that while the Halton Catholic District School Board is keeping The Golden Compass off its shelves, the neighbouring Peel-Dufferin Catholic District School Board will return the entire trilogy to its libraries but with a cautionary notes indicating that the story “in no way represent the reality of the Roman Catholic Church.” The Peel-Dufferin review board consisted of parents, students, and teachers who decided that the books should indeed be available to students. The Halton school board on the other hand ordered its principals not to distribute a Scholastic book catalog in which His Dark Materials was available. In the province of Ontario, these publicly administered Catholic schools are funded with taxpayers’ money. Read more.
Posted by jessia on December 12, 2007 at 10:33 pm
BBC Oxford’s Martin Eastaugh has shared with us his extended interview with Philip Pullman, conducted in the senior common room of Exeter College, our world’s equivalent to Jordan College’s Retiring Room. “The interview contains some rather nice stuff about the story behind the books, the boycott of the film and some insights into the Oxford locations in the story. There’s also a nice anecdote about when he met JRR Tolkein.” Pullman also shares some possible content for the Book of Dust.
Eastaugh also catches up with Catholic League president Bill Donahue who describes Pullman as a “master storyteller”. Click here to access both interviews. He also links to his exploration of Oxford-His Dark Materials connections and some response from the first to see the movie in Oxford.
Posted by Will on November 30, 2007 at 11:53 pm
The huge publicity machine of The Golden Compass movie is driving greatly increased sales of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, Reuters reports. Over the last three months, the books have seen a 500% increase in sales, moving back into USAToday’s Top 50 list some ten years after publication. Interestingly, The Golden Compass (book) makes up around half of all HDM sales in the US. Read more.
Posted by jessia on November 29, 2007 at 5:00 am
Eleanor Wachtel of CBC’s Writers & Company spoke to Philip Pullman in Toronto at Trinity College’s ‘Particles of Narrative’ conference on children’s literature, during his North American tour. The first part of the interview (45 minutes) which aired this past Sunday, 25 November, is available in RealAudio here. While there little new with regards to the trilogy for most His Dark Materials fans, the conversation exposes much of Philip Pullman’s life, especially growing up. He also discusses the themes of storytelling in his own life, including his experience in education.
Part two of the conversation airs this coming Sunday, 2 December and again Thursday, 6 December.
Posted by Cookiemonster on November 28, 2007 at 4:27 am
BBC: Philip Pullman has hit back at critics who accuse him of peddling “candy-coated atheism”, dismissing claims that the film promotes atheism and denigrates Christianity as “absolute rubbish”. “I am a story teller,” he said. ” If I wanted to send a message I would have written a sermon.” Read more.
Pullman also spoke to the CBC in response to an Ontario school board’s review of the book’s position on its elementary school library shelves, “If you want people to read a book, then make a fuss about it, make it controversial. Tell your children they are not to read this book under any circumstances. What is more likely to make them go to the shelf and take it down and read it from there?” Read more.
Posted by jessia on November 27, 2007 at 2:56 am
Last week the CBC reported that the Halton Catholic District School Board in Ontario, Canada had placed The Golden Compass under review to decide whether it would remain on elementary school library shelves, in light of a complaint from a member of the community. The Globe & Mail reports that the book has since been pulled from shelves until the review is complete, and that other local school boards have considered a review of the book. Superintendent Rick MacDonald would not disclose the nature of the complaint but noted it is a first in several years. “… the committee is simply responding to a request for a review of the material.” The review should be complete within the first week of the New Line adaptation’s release.
Posted by jessia on October 30, 2007 at 12:22 am
In preparation for the Chicago Humanities Festival, the Chicago Sun-Times‘ Kevin Nance speaks to festival director Lawrence Weschler and Philip Pullman himself. “He’s a huge phenomenon,” says Weschler, whose school-aged daughter first introduced him to the His Dark Materials trilogy. Pullman looks positively towards the premiere of the Golden Compass film describing wonderful performances from both star Nicole Kidman and newcomer Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra. Read more.
Philip Pullman will be in dialogue with Weschler and his daughter Sara Weschler (now 20) at 1230 pm this Saturday, 3rd November at the Harold Washington Library Center Auditorium. He will also deliver a lecture, “The Elementary Particles of Narrative,” at 200 pm Sunday, 4th November at Columbia College’s Film Row Cinema. Both engagements are now sold out.
Posted by Cookiemonster on October 24, 2007 at 3:13 am
Our lovely Townie wandered along to Pullman’s recent talk at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford and was kind enough to provide us with a summary of the talk, which included some mentions of the film and an upcoming book featuring Lyra among many other interesting snippets of information about all sorts of things. So, here it is!
- Read more -
Posted by jessia on October 9, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Last week, two questions on His Dark Materials appeared on University Challenge. In The Daily Telegraph, as possibly, “the last man in England to have read it,” A N Wilson looks back on his first read of the trilogy, urging anyone left to do so. He asks “Is there any novel written in English in the past decade to match this one for range, depth and passion?” Read more.
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