'His Dark Materials' author Philip Pullman honoured with Bodley Medal at Oxford University
Pullman have been waiting almost five years for the final instalment in the author's sextet of books about his intrepid heroine Lyra and her adventures in multiple worlds. They won't have to wait too much longer.
Pullman says he has written 500 pages of a 540-page novel to conclude the 'Book of Dust' trilogy, and it should be published next year — though he still doesn't know what it's called.
«I haven't got a title yet,» Pullman told The Associated Press in his home city of Oxford, where he was honored Thursday with the Bodley Medal.
«Titles either come at once or they take ages and ages and ages. I haven't found the right title yet — but I will.»
The medal, awarded by Oxford University's 400-year-old Bodleian Libraries, honors contributions to literature, media or science.
Its previous recipients include World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee, physicist Stephen Hawking and novelists Hilary Mantel, Kazuo Ishiguro, Zadie Smith and Colm Toibin.
Pullman, 77, was recognized for a body of work that includes the 'Northern Lights' trilogy and its sequel, 'The Book of Dust.' The saga is set in an alternative version of Oxford — ancient colleges, misty quadrangles, enticing libraries — that blends the retro, the futuristic and the fantastical. In Pullman's most striking act of imagination, every human has an inseparable animal soul mate known as a daemon (pronounced demon).
The stories are rollicking adventures that take Lyra from childhood into young adulthood and tackle humanity's biggest questions: What is the essence of life? Is there a God? What happens when we die? They are among the most successful fantasy series in history.
Pullman's publisher says the first trilogy has sold 17.5 million copies around the world. A B
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