Philip Pullman
Author
Agent
Assistant
Melissa Tombere
MTombere@UnitedAgents.co.ukBiography
The Lord of Dust, creator of daemons and spinner of the finest fairy tales, Philip Pullman is one of the world’s greatest and most influential storytellers. His wide-ranging body of work encompasses books for both adults and children, but he is best-known for the unparalleled achievement that is HIS DARK MATERIALS and the eagerly awaited sequel, LA BELLE SAUVAGE, the first volume in Pullman’s new series THE BOOK OF DUST. Published by Penguin Random and David Fickling Books in October 2017, LA BELLE SAUVAGE has since been named Waterstone’s Book of the Year. The second book in the series, THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH, published 3rd October 2019 and the third and final installment THE ROSE FIELD published October 2025.
Philip Pullman was born in Norwich, England in 1946 and grew up in Zimbabwe and Wales. He worked as a teacher for many years and his first children’s novel, COUNT KARLSTEIN, came out in 1982. THE RUBY IN THE SMOKE, the first of the Sally Lockhart quartet of Victorian thrillers, was published in 1985.
He has won many awards for his children’s books, including the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children’s Book Award, the Smarties Prize, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and a CBE. His acclaimed fantasy trilogy, HIS DARK MATERIALS (Scholastic Books in the UK and Knopf in the US), comprising NORTHERN LIGHTS, THE SUBTLE KNIFE and THE AMBER SPYGLASS, has been published in 39 languages, and even in graphic novel form (with the French publishers, Gallimard). The first volume is now a major motion picture, released in 2007. In 2019 the BBC, in line with Bad Wolf Productions, broadcast a new, award-winning drama series based on HIS DARK MATERIALS, on which Philip was an executive producer.
Philip’s other books for children and young adults include CLOCKWORK, I WAS A RAT!, and THE NEW CUT GANG books; THUNDERBOLT’S WAXWORK and THE GAS-FITTER’S BALL. ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE NORTH was published in April 2008. In 2010 Philip published his controversial number one bestseller THE GOOD MAN JESUS AND THE SCOUNDREL CHRIST.
Philip’s latest and final instalment of The Book of Dust Trilogy, THE ROSE FIELD, published in 2025. The novel has been translated into 17 languages and became an instant Sunday Times bestseller on publication
In 2019 Philip received a knighthood for his services to literature. He is the winner of 2019’s J M Barrie Award, given annually in recognition of a lifetime’s achievement delighting children.
Philip Pullman lives in Oxford with his wife, and has two sons.
THE ROSE FIELD by Philip Pullman (The Book of Dust: Volume 3)
The long-awaited and highly anticipated conclusion to Philip Pullman’s bestselling The Book of Dust sequence . . .
Shortlisted for Book of the Year & Audiobook of the Year at The British Book Awards 2026
‘A masterpiece for all eternity… Powerful, profound and utterly unforgettable: a stunning trilogy conclusion.’ – Telegraph
‘Pullman’s uncanny ability to conjure place is once again in full evidence . . . And when we reach it, the novel’s final showdown is a fantastically nail-biting ride.’ – Guardian
‘But for all its intricate interweavings of alchemy and folk tales, ballads and poetry, the book has the pacing of a thriller.’ – The Times
‘Lyra: what will you do when you find this place in the desert, the opening to the world of the roses?’
‘Defend it,’ Lyra said. ‘Die defending it.’
When readers left Lyra in The Secret Commonwealth she was alone, in the ruins of a deserted city. Pantalaimon had run from her – part of himself – in search of her imagination, which he believed she had lost. Lyra travelled across the world from her Oxford home in search of her dæmon. And Malcolm, loyal Malcolm, too journeyed far from home, towards the Silk Roads in search of Lyra . . .
In The Rose Field, their quests converge in the most dangerous, breathtaking and world-changing ways. They must take help from spies and thieves, gryphons and witches, old friends and new, learning all the while the depth and surprising truths of the alethiometer. All around them, the world is aflame – made terrifying by fear, power and greed.
As they move East, towards the red building that will reunite them and give them answers – on Dust, on the special roses, on imagination – so too does the Magisterium, at war against all that Lyra holds dear.
Marking thirty years since the world was first introduced to Pullman’s remarkable heroine Lyra Belacqua in Northern Lights, The Rose Field is the culmination of the cultural phenomenon of The Book of Dust and His Dark Materials.
‘Ablaze with light and life . . . To read Pullman is to experience the world refreshed, aglow, in technicolour’ – Independent
Publications
Fiction
The second volume of Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust sees Lyra, now twenty years old, and her daemon Pantalaimon, forced to navigate their relationship in a way they could never have imagined, and drawn into the complex and dangerous factions of a world that they had no idea existed.
Pulled along on his own journey too is Malcolm; once a boy with a boat and a mission to save a baby from the flood, now a man with a strong sense of duty and a desire to do what is right.
Theirs is a world at once familiar and extraordinary, and they must travel far beyond the edges of Oxford, across Europe and into Asia, in search for what is lost – a city haunted by daemons, a secret at the heart of a desert, and the mystery of the elusive Dust.
The first installment in Philip Pullman’s new The Book of Dust trilogy. Malcolm Polstead’s Oxford life has been one of routine, ordinary even. He is happiest playing with his daemon, Asta, in their canoe, La Belle Sauvage. But now as the rain builds, the world around Malcolm and Asta is, it seems, set to become increasingly far from ordinary. Finding himself linked to a baby by the name of Lyra Belacqua, Malcolm is forced to undertake the challenge of his life and to make a dangerous journey that will change him and Lyra for ever . . .
Philip Pullman has selected his favourite tales from the Brothers Grimm and retold them in sparkling, clear and contemporary language. Pullman’s selection includes all the most famous, familiar tales – ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, ‘Cinderella’, ‘Snow White’ – alongside other equally delightful but lesser known stories.
Philip Pullman’s bestselling trilogy which comprises NORTHERN LIGHTS, THE SUBTLE KNIFE and THE AMBER SPYGLASS (the first children’s/adult book to win the Whitbread Book of the Year, as well as being longlisted for the Booker Prize) has now been produced as a single volume.
Praise for HIS DARK MATERIALS:
Philip Pullman. Is he the best storyteller ever? The Observer
Move over, Tolkien and C S Lewis. Philip Pullman has completed his extraordinary cosmological tour de force…an astonishing imaginative feat. The Telegraph
As well as giving his readers stories that tick with the precision, accuracy and grace of an eighteenth century clock, he also writes like an angel…he gives his readers precisely the satisfaction they look for in a novel: well made, absorbing characters, supreme elegance of style and tone, a richly inventive landscape, and finally some very big ideas fearlessly explored. The Observer
Philip Pullman, capable of lighting up the dullest day or greyest spirit with the incandescence of his imagination. The Independent
This is remarkable writing: courageous and dangerous as the best art should be. The Times
Philip Pullman’s HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy is one of the great imaginative works in the English language. Terry Jones
Children's
Meet the New Cut gang – Benny, Thunderbolt, Bridie and the Peretti twins – the greatest detectives since Sexton Blake. Who’s passing counterfeit coins round Lambeth? Surely not Thunderbolt’s dad, who’s been arrested. And who’s stolen the Worshipful Company of Gas-Fitters’ silver? With a little help from some colourful (and not always willing) accomplices, our heroes are soon blazing hot on the criminals’ trail.
Published together for the first time are Philip Pullman’s classic tales of crime and detection: THUNDERBOLT’S WAXWORK and THE GAS-FITTERS’ BALL.
Agent
Assistant
Biography
Philip Pullman was born in Norwich, England in 1946 and grew up in Zimbabwe and Wales. He worked as a teacher for many years and his first children’s novel, COUNT KARLSTEIN, came out in 1982. THE RUBY IN THE SMOKE, the first of the Sally Lockhart quartet of Victorian thrillers, was published in 1985.
He has won many awards for his children’s books, including the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children’s Book Award, the Smarties Prize, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and a CBE. His acclaimed fantasy trilogy, HIS DARK MATERIALS (Scholastic Books in the UK and Knopf in the US), comprising NORTHERN LIGHTS, THE SUBTLE KNIFE and THE AMBER SPYGLASS, has been published in 39 languages, and the first volume is now a major motion picture, released in cinemas 7th December 2007.
Philip’s other books for children and young adults include CLOCKWORK, I WAS A RAT!, and THE NEW CUT GANG books; THUNDERBOLT’S WAXWORK and THE GAS-FITTER’S BALL. ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE NORTH was published in April 2008. He is working on THE BOOK OF DUST, another book about the characters in the HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy.
In 2010 Philip published his controversial number one bestseller THE GOOD MAN JESUS AND THE SCOUNDREL CHRIST.
Philip Pullman lives in Oxford with his wife, and has two sons.
