Philip Pullman's not so dark materials

Philip Pullman was in the news a couple of weeks ago for his impassioned speech in support of public libraries. If the only other thing you know about him is that he is the author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, why not check out the excellent Seven Stories site? Seven Stories is the centre for children's books based in Newcastle, so you might not be able to visit, but more and more of its archives are available online, including a lot of material on Philip Pullman. His page has information about him and 37 scanned pages of handwritten notes he made while writing his books, including a list of all the symbols on Lyra's alethiometer. Other authors to get similar treatment include David Almond and Judith Kerr. Her archives are even more fascinating and include remnants from her childhood such as the book she made for her grandmother's 60th birthday and pages from an album of drawings she made as a teenager. Before long, Enid Blyton material will be up there too. An amazing site!