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I was very surprised and honoured to be offered a knighthood. 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. Many people I admire, such as Quentin Blake, Ellen MacArthur, Chris Hoy, Jacqueline Wilson, Nicholas Hytner, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Bryn Terfel, Ray Davies, Mary Beard — far too many to list — have been happy to accept a knighthood or damehood, and I am proud to be in their company.
29 December 2018
I recently commented on bookselling in the UK, and part of my statement was extracted in Richard Brooks' article in the Sunday Times on 30th July 2017. You can read my full statement here.
01 August 2017
Today sees the publication of my latest book The Adventures of John Blake: The Mystery of the Ghost Ship. Beautifully illustrated by Fred Fordham, the story first appeared in The Phoenix, the weekly comic published by David Fickling Books. Thanks to the artwork, as well as the fact, perhaps, that I grew up on the adventures of Dan Dare, it has a wonderfully nostalgic feel.
01 June 2017
The title of the The Book of Dust is La Belle Sauvage. It will be published simultaneously on 19 October 2017 by Penguin Random House Children’s and David Fickling Books in the UK, and Random House Children’s Books in the US.
30 May 2017
Eleven-year-old Malcolm lives with his parents at the Trout Inn near Oxford, across the river Thames from Godstow Priory, where the nuns are looking after a special guest. One night his father comes to Malcolm’s bedroom.
Now read on
30 May 2017
I recently gave an interview to BBC Radio 4's Today Programme about the Book of Dust. Here is a link to it.
18 February 2017
I know from their letters and tweets that my readers have been waiting patiently (mostly) for The Book of Dust for a long time. I’ve been writing it for several years, and I’ve been very parsimonious with information about it. It gives me great pleasure and some excitement at last to satisfy their curiosity (and mine) about this book.
What can I tell you about it? The first thing to say is that Lyra is at the centre of the story. Events involving her open the first chapter, and will close the last. I’ve always wanted to tell the story of how Lyra came to be living at Jordan College and, in thinking about it, I discovered a long story that began when she was a baby and will end when she’s grown up. This volume and the next will cover two parts of Lyra’s life: starting at the beginning of her story and returning to her 20 years later.
15 February 2017
This catastrophe has had a thousand causes. Here are some.There is our country’s post-imperial reluctance to let go of the idea that we are a great nation, combined with our post-second-world-war delusion that we were still a great power.
25 June 2016
In 1915 pocket broadsheets of inspiring literature were distributed to the troops. One hundred years on The Guardian asked poets and writers to select the pieces they would send today. Here is one of my choices.
07 November 2015
It's been a constant source of pleasure to me to see my Dark Materials trilogy adapted to different forms. It's been a radio play, a stage play, a film, an audiobook, a graphic novel - and now comes this version for television.
In recent years we've seen how long stories on television, whether adaptations [Game of Thrones] or original [The Sopranos, The Wire], can reach depths of characterisation and heights of suspense by taking the time for events to make their proper impact and for consequences to unravel. The sheer talent now working in the world of long-form television is formidable. For all those reasons I'm delighted at the prospect of a television version of His Dark Materials.
05 November 2015