Carnegie of Carnegies

It's been announced that Philip Pullman's Northern Lights has won the Carnegie of Carnegies (about which I posted in April). I confess, I voted for Alan Garner's The Owl Service, simply because it had such a huge impact on me as a child reader.




(I confess that I heard this news late yesterday but I was trying to work on both my current fiction tales (simultaneously more or less), so I didn't post it !)

Scholar's Blog Book Discussion Group

Just a quick reminder that the Scholar's Blog book discussion group has begun, and this month we're discussing Philip Pullman's The Ruby in the Smoke. If you've read it, please feel free to pop over and join in !

Count Karlstein - Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman's Count Karlstein won the Whitbread Award and is based on a play he wrote (when he was a middle-school teacher) for his class to perform.

The story is set in a Swiss village in 1816 and revolves around wicked Count Karlstein, his two wards, the English orphans Lucy and Charlotte, and the very nasty Faustian bargain Karlstein struck with Zamiel, the Demon Huntsman, ten years ago. Zamiel annually haunts the local woods on All Souls' Eve and everyone usually stays safely at home in order to stay out his way. Pullman adds further interest to the mix of characters with the appearance of the orphans' former schoolteacher, the indomitable Augusta Davenport ("I was able to console myself with the reflection that an English gentlewoman can rise above any circumstances, given intelligence and a loaded pistol"), and the actor (and sometime mountebank) known as Doctor Cadavarezzi (aka Signor Brilliantini), a conman who's as charming as he is sly. The tale is briskly narrated by a variety of characters, including Lucy (who is heavily influenced by such contemporary Gothic novels as The Mysteries of Udolpho) and the bumbling, hilariously self-important police sergeant Snitsch (almost all the names in this tale are puns). The plot undergoes a series of twists and turns that are both complicated and delightfully improbable, yet also funny. In an exuberant conclusion that's reminiscent of the best comic operas, the orphans find a true protector, the evil Count is served his just deserts and the formidable Miss Davenport is reunited with her long-lost love. Children will love this tale!

Count Karlstein is also available as an Audiobook and it's available in the US from Amazon.com. And you can read the first chapter at the Random House website.

The Firework Maker's Daughter - Philip Pullman

In Philip Pullman's fable, The Firework Maker's Daughter Lila was, as a baby, "a cross little thing, always crying and refusing her food, but Lalchand [her father] built a cradle for her in the corner of the workshop, where she could see the sparks play and listen to the fizz and crackle of the gunpowder." Once out of her cradle, Lila shows a marked talent for pyrotechnics, even inventing her own fireworks with names like "Shimmering Coins" and "Tumbling Demons". However, when Lila tells her father that she'd like to become a master firework-maker, like him, he's appalled. Firework-making is no job for a girl, he tells her; besides, with her burned fingers and singed eyebrows, he's afraid he'll never be able to find a husband for her.

If Lalchand is horrified by Lila's ambitions, his daughter is equally appalled by the prospect of having to marry, so she decides to run away to Mount Merapi, where every firework-maker must go in order to claim some of the royal sulphur from Razvani the Fire-Fiend. Lila's adventures on the road to Merapi alternate with those of her best friend, Chulak (and his talking white elephant, Hamlet) who set out after her when they learn something that could mean life or death for Lila. Along the way, they meet wild animals, pirates, and supernatural beings of every kind until, at last, Lila must face the scariest obstacle of all: her own fear.

This is a charming tale, beautifully illustrated, and will appeal to girls who are less fond of "girly" things.

The Firework Maker's Daughter is also available from Amazon.com.

Philip Pullman Film News

No, I'm not talking about The Golden Compass movie. The Guardian has reported that Philip Pullman has given (free of charge) the film rights to his novel, The Butterfly Tattoo, to a small independent Dutch company that promotes educational projects for young people. Dynamic Entertainment now has the option to adapt the book, in exchange for 10% of any eventual revenues. Filming is expected to begin in August. The Butterfly Tattoo was originally published in 1992 as The White Mercedes (by which title it is available in the US) and is described by Pullman as a tragedy.

You can find out more about the film project at the Dynamic Entertainment website. They're inviting people to invest in the project, so do take a look.

Oxford Literary Festival 2007

*Thunk*

That was the sound of my head hitting my table as I finally finished writing the first draft of my second piece of "Doctor Who" fiction... All that lies ahead is proof-reading and revisions, and that'll keep until tomorrow.

Now that's out of the way, I'll drag my head back out of the Whoniverse to tell you about this year's Oxford Literary Festival - the programme for which arrived on Friday and received a cursory flick accompanied by moans of mingled joy and misery. Joy, because there are some great talks going on again this year; misery, because my budget's going to keep me from getting to ANY of the talks I'm keen to attend (I get paid a week after it's all over, wouldn't you just know it?!)

Anyway, just to tantalise everyone, here's what I'm missing:

WEDNESDAY 21 MARCH ANTHONY HOROWITZ - Nightrise 4.30 pm

Anthony Horowitz is a hugely popular children's author whose books have won many awards and sold millions of copies around the world. He is the creator of the phenomenal Alex Rider series, which follows a teenage spy's adrenalin-packed adventures. He also writes extensively for film and television, with credits including Midsomer Murders, Foyle’s War * and the recent Alex Rider movie, Stormbreaker. His new book, Nightrise, is the third in "The Power of Five" supernatural saga [the second of which was nominated for a Cybil].

(* David Tennant starred in an episode of Foyle's War - it's on my TBW (To Be Watched) list !)

FRIDAY 23 MARCH PHILIP PULLMAN and ADRIAN HODGES with MARK LAWSON The Ruby in the Smoke 6 pm

The Ruby in the Smoke, the first book in Philip Pullman's gripping Sally Lockhart quartet, set in Victorian England, was adapted for television recently by Adrian Hodges (starring Billie Piper as Sally). Philip Pullman and Adrian Hodges discuss the adaptation (with clips from the film) and Philip shares some photographs that helped to inspire the writing of the book. Chaired by Mark Lawson.

(The thought of missing this makes me want to cry - or scream ! Ditto the one below.)

SATURDAY 24 MARCH PHILIP PULLMAN'S THE GOLDEN COMPASS From Book to Film 2 pm

This year's Festival is proud to host a discussion on the evolution of The Golden Compass from book to film, in which Philip Pullman is joined by producer Deborah Forte to discuss their roles in taking an award-winning book to one of the most anticipated films of 2007. Chaired by BBC arts presenter, Mark Lawson.

The Golden Compass, adapted and directed by Chris Weitz, is the first of three films based on Philip Pullman’s acclaimed "His Dark Materials" trilogy. Released in December, it stars Nicole Kidman as Mrs Coulter, Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel and introduces Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra.


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Perhaps I should try my Sonic Screwdriver on a nearby ATM, as The Doctor did in the Christmas Special "The Runaway Bride" ?



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I'm in the middle (literally) of re-reading Garth Nix's "The Keys to the Kingdom" series at present, having picked up Lady Friday yesterday. However, I shall have to put the fourth book on hold whilst I re-read The House in Norham Gardens ready to start the Book Discussion on Tuesday. I'm also reading Paul Parsons' fascinating and very readable The Science of Doctor Who. Oh and I shall soon start researching for a third Who story featuring my original companion - so that means there will continue to be only a few book reviews each week.

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If you can get to Bristol's Forbidden Planet on Saturday March 17 from 1 - 2 pm, Diana Wynne Jones and Stephen Hunt will be appearing with four members of the Write Fantastic collective: Juliet E McKenna, Stan Nichols, Marc Chadbourn and Jessica Rydill. Fortunately it's a free event, and I've got a lift to get there and back too, so I'll be able to go - and maybe I'll even find something half way intelligent (or intelligible !) to say to Diana Wynne Jones, whose books I've admired since I read Fire and Hemlock (Of course, I'll have to be forcibly restrained from looking at all the lovely "Doctor Who" goodies!)

Spring Heeled Jack - Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman's Spring-Heeled Jack is a vivid Victorian tale told in words and comic strips, the latter drawn by David Mostyn. This quick-witted, fast-moving adventure story tells of three defenceless sibling orphans who attempt to escape from the Alderman Cawn-Plaster Memorial Orphanage in London on a dark and stormy night. Closely watched by Mack the Knife and other villainous villains, the three children weave their way through the dark and dangerous streets of the city, in constant fear of being caught and returned to the care of the rancid Mr Killjoy and his horribly horrid assistant, Miss Gasket. Fortunately for the orphans, Spring Heeled Jack, the hooded superhero to beat all hooded superheroes, who dresses like the devil and is ready for action against the evil-doers and scallywags of London's dark streets, comes to their aid.

This is a lively and amusing tale, although I confess I initially found the comic strips (which appear amidst the text more or less at random) slightly distracting. Each chapter begins with a quotation - including, funnily, one from Spring Heeled Jack by Philip Pullman ! I'm sure that this book will be enjoyed by younger readers.

Clockwork, or All Wound Up - Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman's Clockwork is a short but very compelling tale about a German town named Glockenheim where the residents set great store by their clockmaking tradition: each time an apprentice becomes master of his craft, he commemorates the occasion by adding a new figure to the town's great clock. On the eve of one such celebration, a sinister train of events is set in motion when the local novelist Fritz entertains the villagers with his most recent work: the tale of Prince Florian, the son of the deceased local ruler, whose fate is linked to a brilliant clockmaker named Dr Kalmenius. However Fritz's narrative is interrupted by the arrival of a cloaked man who appears to have sprung straight from the pages of his story: the aforementioned enigmatic Dr. Kalmenius of Schatzberg, who has come - or so it appears - to help the young apprentice clockmaker Karl to achieve an unearned triumph at the next day's ceremonies. Meanwhile, poor Prince Florian, whose time has nearly run out, stumbles into Glockenheim and finds the innkeeper's little daughter Gretl, who is the one person there who is capable of restoring true life to the mechanical prince.

Each character in this tale gets his or her just deserts with a fairy-tale ending that pays fitting and playful tribute to the story's twin themes: "So they both lived happily ever after" and "that was how they all wound up"; this book is both about clockwork and about storytelling and offers an interesting point of view about the art of storytelling:

"For every once upon a time there must be a story to follow, because if a story doesn't, something else will, and it might not be as harmless as a story." (p. 76)

Clockwork is also available from Amazon.com.

I Was A Rat! - Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman's I Was A Rat! is a delightful take-off on the fairytale, Cinderella, interspersed with hilarious articles from "The Daily Scourge" newspaper. Their satiric spin on the media will be appreciated by young and old: "As for the rise in juvenile crime, it's easy. The kids are doing it, aren't they? Then there's no need to look any further. BLAME THE KIDS!!!"

If you've ever wondered what happened to the creatures that were transformed into Cinderella's footmen and page, then this story will amuse and entertain you. One little lad who was having too much fun sliding down banisters with the page boys from the palace, missed Cinderella's coach back home. He finally wends his way through the town to the house of a childless couple called Bob and Joan (a cobbler and washerwoman), where he answers their questions with the phrase "I was a rat!"

They name him Roger for the son they never had and he proceeds to stumble through a series of misadventures, whilst eating pencils, tassels and miscellaneous other (usually inedible) items. There is a quality of innocence and ignorance to this rat-boy, who trusts a little too easily. He gets into trouble at school, and with the Philosopher Royal and his cat Bluebottle, he's put in a freak show, and then falls in with a gang of boy thieves. When he tries to go back to being a rat, people fear the "Monster of the Sewers" as the Daily Scourge dubs him, and it seems that Roger might end up being "Sterminated".

Before that fate can befall him, however, Cinderella, who used to be Mary Jane and is now the lovely Princess Aurelia, gets to meet up again with Roger the former rat, and they commiserate about their situations, which aren't quite as either one of them anticipated. But as Mary Jane concludes "I don't think it's what you are that matters. I think it's what you do."

Philip Pullman on Narrative

You may recall that I mentioned recently that Philip Pullman would be giving the annual Richard Hillary Memorial Lecture, entitled "POCO A POCO: The Fundamental Particles of Narrative". (The lecture is given in memory of the heroic airman Richard Hillary, a Spitfire pilot, who died in the Second World War). The lecture was last night and a friend and I took ourselves through Oxford's snowy streets to hear Philip speak and it was worth it (of course !) The following is a verbatim account of Philip's talk, based on my notes - although as usual when I listen to Philip, I was listening more than writing !

Philip began with two extracts from Clockwork and I Was A Rat! (neither of which I've yet read, though I own a secondhand copy of the latter); both extracts included an instance of something being poured out of one vessel and into another. Philip explained that this act of pouring liquid from one vessel to another can be seen as a Fundamental Particle of Narrative - it happens in a multitude of contexts, yet we can always make sense of it, and it often conveys a lot more information than might immediately be supposed. To prove his point, Philip showed us a number of photos, cartoons and paintings that involved this simple act, and showed us what else we understood from the various images: such as a Charles Addams cartoon in which the Addams family are about to pour a large pan of something hot onto the heads of some unsuspecting carol singers below - our unconscious minds interpret the image we seem and make sense of its context from other contexts - the image of carol singers, the wisp of steam coming from the pan of liquid.

Stories are not made up of words, or language, as we might suppose, suggested Philip, but of events. Although both language and Time are important to storytelling, the Fundamental Particles of Narrative are events, they are abstract rather than concrete. We receive an enormous amount of information every day, most of it through our eyes, yet it never overwhelms us because our unconscious effortlessly processes the information we receive and fits it into contexts that allow us to make narrative sense of the information.

Fundamental Particles of Narrative are neutral, but they have a metaphorical charge that allows them to mean more than one thing, and this move from the literal to the metaphorical is what allows them to be used to make narrative sense of events. The Fundamental Particles of Narrative are grounded in actions, in our physical experiences. Philip said that the one thing he longs for readers to take away from reading the "His Dark Materials" series, is the value of bodily experiences, and he quoted Will telling Lyra (in The Amber Spyglass) that the Angels were jealous of the humans bodies, and that for an angel to possess a body would be an ecstasy of feeling and experiencing. He quoted from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell:

Man has no Body distinct from his Soul for that calld Body is a portion of Soul discernd by the five Senses. the chief inlets of Soul in this age.

Philip also discussed inspiration, or what non-writers mean by inspiration, and said that it was not something he had ever discussed with another writer. He pointed out that it is perfectly possible to write without inspiration, but being inspired means that the curtain is twitched aside for a moment allowing light to illuminate the scene. Philip echoed something that Tolkien once said - that writing whilst inspired feels more like discovery than invention, and he noted that inspiration doesn't last long - but it doesn't have to, just long enough to offer encouragement and to cheer up the writer. Philip then talked about the idea of inspiration as a spring into which the writer can dip, an unlimited, generous source (unlike a well). He quoted from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan:

A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!

The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure dome with caves of ice!

After the talk, Philip answered questions from the audience, and said that all children need to read and sing nursery rhymes and to read fairy tales. He recommended that every school teacher has a stock of 30 - 40 stories (one for each week of the school year) in their heads which they can tell children - without reading from a book. He recommended that teachers (and parents) find the stories that suit them to tell to children, but said that it was very important for children to hear stories, as well as read them. He also observed that theories of literature don't show the reader what's not in the text, but instead act as a filer to highlight things the reader might not otherwise notice - just as a yellow filter on a black and white film, will highlight the blue of the sky and the white of clouds.

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This was a fascinating talk (I've never yet been to a dull one by Philip, it has to be said), but I think I wouldn't have found it quite as fascinating had I heard it a few weeks ago, than I did hearing it last night. So what difference does three weeks make ? Well in the last three weeks I've started "committing fiction" - I'm writing a spec fic story (with a historical slant). This is the first time, since the age of about 10, that I've succeeded in writing more than 3 pages of fiction. I'm not promising it's going to be great literature - but it's a story that has insisted on being written - to my complete astonishment; after all, I've been saying for the last 15 years, at least, that I didn't have the imagination to write fiction - but perhaps I just hadn't found the story I needed to tell? I don't know. I do know that it's taking up almost all my spare time - which is why you'll find fewer book reviews here of late! I've not stopped reading fiction, but a lot of it is Doctor Who fiction, for the simple reason that I'm writing a Doctor Who story. I'm also reading books about the historical period in which the story is set (both fiction and non-fiction), and until I get this story out of my head and firmly pinned on paper, you should expect to see a few less book reviews on my Blog (and more of them will be Doctor Who books when they do appear!).

Oh, and no, I don't plan to send my story to the BBC or to a publisher - I'm just writing it for my own satisfaction - and perhaps to prove that I can write fiction after all!

Philip Pullman Events

I'm in receipt of Philip Pullman's monthly email newsletter (for which you can sign up here - click on the envelope) and this month Philip mentions he'll be giving the annual Richard Hillary Memorial Lecture (entitled this year: "POCO A POCO: The Fundamental Particles of Narrative") at Trinity College, Oxford. The lecture is given in memory of the heroic airman Richard Hillary, a Spitfire pilot, who died in the Second World War. The lecture isn't about war or flying; it's on a literary topic, and previous lecturers have included several novelists. I'm hoping I can make it to this one.

Philip's also speaking at the annual Oxford Literary Festival in March. He'll be doing three events, at one of which he is going to be talking with Adrian Hodges, the screenwriter who made the adaptation of The Ruby in the Smoke for BBC television (which I watched and briefly reviewed. The two will be talking about the difference between telling a story on the page and on the screen, and looking at some passages from the book to see how they worked in the adaptation. This event is one I really want to attend ! Another event at the Literary Festival will focus on the filming of The Golden Compass - but Philip says the format of that one is as yet undecided.

(Disappointingly, the Programme for this year's Festival isn't on the website yet.)

Philip Pullman Wins the Freedom of Oxford

I heard late yesterday evening that Philip Pullman has won the rare accolade of being given the Freedom of Oxford. According to the news story, he joins just five other modern-day recipients of this purely honorary "award". Oxford Lord Mayor Jim Campbell, says:

Oxford has an astonishingly rich tradition of children's story telling and Philip Pullman is a worthy successor to Lewis Carroll and C S Lewis. His Dark Materials is one of the finest imaginative works in English. While it creates and explores new worlds and new systems its roots are in Oxford and we are pleased to be able to confer the Freedom of Oxford on someone who has given so much enjoyment to children, and adults, all over the world.

Pullman, who will receive the honour at a ceremony at the Town Hall later this month, says:

I am delighted and honoured to receive the Freedom of Oxford, the city which has been the inspiration for a great deal of my work. Oxford is a city that is steeped in storytelling. It's a place where the past and the present jostle each other on the pavement and while of course that's true of many cities in Britain, Oxford does seem to have a few extra dimensions in some strange way. I am immensely gratified the city I've made my home has found my work worth rewarding, and very proud to receive an honour whose history goes back to the craftsmen and merchants of the Middle Ages - and which is held by a few very distinguished people of today.

In some ways, this is going to be Philip's year since the film of the first book of the His Dark Materials series, The Golden Compass, is out at the cinemas in December this year, and The Shadow in the North (sequel to The Ruby in the Smoke which aired in late December 2006) is also in production.

Congratulations Philip !

Exeter College, which in Lyra's Oxford is Jordan College.

The Ruby in the Smoke TV movie

The TV movie of Philip Pullman's The Ruby in the Smoke aired last night and I watched it this afternoon. Billie Piper was quite good as Sally Lockhart, and Julie Walters was astonishingly wicked as Mrs Holland ! It's now 6 years since I read the Sally Lockhart quartet - they were the first of Philip's books that I read - and I've never got around to re-reading them, but I feel inclined to as a result of seeing the TV movie (which can only be a good thing !) Of course, the fact that I've not read them recently means that I didn't spend the entire 95 minutes nit-piicking about what they'd changed, left out or added - something I'm generally inclined to do with adaptations of books (which is one reason I deliberately haven't re-read Terry Pratchett's Hogfather lately). The BBC did a good job of the Victorian settings, as might be expected from the champions of period drama, especially the scenes in the opium den. If you're wondering whether to watch this when it comes your way, then my advice is do watch it and enjoy it, as I did.

Television treats for British fantasy fans

British fans of Philip Pullman and Terry Pratchett are hoping for Christmas treats. The BBC are screening an adaptation of Philip Pullman's novel The Ruby in the Smoke (the first book in the Sally Lockhart quartet) on December 27th at 8.30 pm. The Victorian adventure stars the actress who recently retired as Doctor Who's assistant, Billie Piper, alongside Oscar-nominated Julie Walters. Good news for American fans - according to the PBS site, it'll be airing in early February in the US (it's about half way down the page on the left hand side !) on Masterpiece Theatre.

And Terry Pratchett fans are hoping that Sky One's adaptation of Pratchett's Discworld novel, Hogfather, lives up to its potential. Fans of the book and the TV movie, may be interested in the Hogfather: The Illustrated Screenplay or the Hogfather Calendar, both of which I've seen and can recommend as being interesting (and in the case of the calendar, full of some brilliant photos !). Hogfather is airing on Sky One on December 17 and 18, and again on December 25 and 26, in two 2-hour slots.

His Dark Materials film news

The Guardian reports that Nicole Kidman will be playing Mrs Coulter in the first of the "His Dark Materials" films. New Line announced in June that Lyra will be played by unknown Dakota Blue Richards, aged 12. Meanwhile Paul Bettany, is said to be in talks to play Lord Asriel, Lyra's guardian. The film has a tentative release date of November 2007.