Golden Compass author pays tribute to teacher

Nov 26 2007

HE IS one of the 21st century's best-selling authors.

And tomorrow a film based on one of his books – starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig and heralded as this Christmas’ family blockbuster – will have its world premiere in London.

Award-winning Philip Pullman says he owes that success to his former school teacher Enid Jones. The 87-year-old taught The Golden Compass writer at Ysgol Ardudny, Harlech, during the 1960s.

Responding to his compliment Ms Jones, now retired and still living in the Welsh town, said she always knew he would become a writer because he was so talented.

Pullman, 61,who has written more than 30 books including The Golden Compass which is part of a trilogy including the best-seller His Dark Materials, said Ms Jones, set him on the path to a literary career.

Born in England, the Whitbread winning author moved to Gwynedd as a child and joined Ysgol Ardudny in 1957. Forty years later, they still keep in touch.

“It’s not too much to say that my awakening to the pleasures and responsibilities of literature took place in Miss Enid Jones’s English class at Ysgol Ardudwy in Harlech,’’ he said.

“North Wales is the place I associate with the first real writing I did.”

English teacher Ms Jones told the Western Mail yesterday that Pullman always stood out as an A-grade student.

“Did he really say that about me?,” she asked.

“He’s too good to me. Whenever he brings a book out he always sends me a copy and we send Christmas cards to each other.

“It’s lovely for me that he said that. I don’t deserve it. He was a good pupil. He was lovely to teach and was always interested.

“He wrote the best essays. When he did his Oxford scholarship the school head, who was a scientist, read his paper and said, ‘That boy can write’. I said to him, ‘I know that’. I knew he was definitely going to be a writer. He had such style.

“One thing he loved was when I insisted on reading out Milton’s Paradise Lost aloud.’’

The classic poem later became a major influence for Pullman’s His Dark Materials, something that might never have happened had Ms Jones not fired his enthusiasm for the classic work. Ms Jones taught Pullman for O and A-level English.

He got As in both exams, she said.

“He was an omnivorous reader. He read everything and anything.”

Ms Jones agreed that teachers were “perhaps more important than we ever think”.

She said one of Pullman’s greatest arts was being able to write books that worked at adult and child level.

“When he sent me The Golden Compass I said to him, ‘Philip, I think I’m right to say I’m supposed to read this at two levels’. That’s quite an art, to be able to write on two levels.”

If a Hollywood film and praise from a formative influence and teacher is not enough, Pullman can also celebrate being made Honorary Professor in Arts & Humanities at Bangor University. Pullman, who lives near Oxford, will run seminars and discussions with academics and students.

University Vice-Chancellor Professor Merfyn Jones said, “This is a magnificent boost for Bangor and for all students of literature. Philip Pullman is one of the finest writers writing in English today, and he is passionately interested in education. We are delighted to have been able to make this appointment.”

Mr Pullman, who has published more than 30 books, said, “This is an exciting time to come to Bangor University, with its emphasis on creative work in many fields. I look forward with great pleasure to meeting colleagues and students and exploring the subject of narrative with them.”

Pullman won the Whitbread Book of the Year prize in 2002, and this summer won the Carnegie of Carnegies – which was voted for by the public from the winners of the Carnegie Medal of the past 70 years.

Movie sparks strong feelings without being seen

The A-list will be out in force tomorrow night for the world premiere ofThe Golden Compass – the fantasy film based on Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials.

Starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, Dakota Blue Richards and Ian McKellen, the film will be released on December 5 but it has already been stirring controversy.

While Pullman’s books have been a hit with millions of children around the world, it was claimed that one of the series’ main themes – the rejection of organised religion and, in particular, the abuse of power within the Catholic Church – had been “watered down” in the film.

The controversy centred on the trilogy’s sinister Magisterium, which some readers have identified as a thinly-veiled attack on the Catholic Church.

However, it had been reported that the film shows the Magisterium as a critique of all dogmatic organisations, in order to avoid a religious backlash.

But Pullman hit back at the reports, saying that he had also heard of attacks on the film being made by groups in America who called it “propaganda” that encouraged people to read “religious books”.

He told the Western Mail, “This must be the only film attacked in the same week for being too religious and for being anti-religious – and by people who haven’t seen it.”

He admitted he was happy with what he had seen during a series of visits to the set.

“I have very friendly and happy relations with the film-makers and I’m very happy with what they are doing,” he said.