I have maintained a passionate interest in education, which leads me occasionally to make foolish and ill-considered remarks alleging that not everything is well in our schools. My main concern is that an over-emphasis on testing and league tables has led to a lack of time and freedom for a true, imaginative and humane engagement with literature.

Pullman has narrated unabridged audiobooks of the three main novels in His Dark Materials. " Pullman chose some more obscure tales too. Literary critic Alan Jacobs (of Wheaton College) said that in His Dark Materials Pullman replaced the theist world-view of John Milton's Paradise Lost with a Rousseauist one.

title The Golden Compass. For the 70th anniversary of the Medal it was named one of the top ten winning works by a panel composing the ballot for a public election of the all-time favourite. He is the author of several best-selling books most notably the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials and the fictionalised biography of Jesus The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ.