His Dark Materials author talks to Freetime

Next Thursday the sound of Beethoven and Monteverdi will be coming from Windsor Theatre as Philip Pullman talks about what the classical music means to him, among a plethora of other composers.

The Orchestra of St John's, conducted by John Lubbock, will play inbetween his conversation with author and broadcaster Paul Blezard. Philip, who lives just outside Oxford, said: "I had a wonderful time at the previous one "The idea came from the Oxford Literary Festival. They got in touch and asked me if I would like to do it.

"I love music and I thought it will be a wonderful opportunity to hear my favourite music by a live orchestra."

The talk will be autobiographical as he talks about music that reminds him of a particular time. But growing up, his parents weren't particularly musical.

He said: "Like everyone else we listened to the radio in those days. In my early teenage years we listened to Radio Luxembourg, which was a source of pop music.

"It came through am radio late at night very faintly on transistor radio. That was pop music.

"With classical music I suppose I heard bits of this and bits of that.

"It came to me a little bit later when I was student at Oxford and I heard much more of it."

Philip studied English at Exeter College, Oxford and found his way into the teaching profession at 25.

He published his first children's book in 1982, and has since published nearly 20 books.

It is His Dark Materials for which he most well known- a trilogy of fantasy novels which follows the coming of age of two children as they wander through parallel universes.

Northern Lights was published in 1995, followed by The Subtle Knife in 1997 and then The Amber Spyglass in 2000.

In April 2003 the BBC's Big Read asked people to nominate their favourite novels and His Dark Materials came third in a list of 100- Lord of the Rings came first and Pride and Prejudice second.

Philip said he was very proud to have received that accolade and has since won many more awards.

The Carnegie Medal is particularly important to him as it is chosen by librarians.

He said: "Librarians really know books. They have read a lot. They know all the books there are."

Northern Lights was made into a film in 2007 called The Golden Compass, but the rest of the trilogy has been left.

Philip said: "Some things about it I liked very much. The cast was fantastic. All parts were played brilliantly.

"It is a pity they didn't shoot the whole story."

Philip is currently writing his latest novel, The Book of Dust, which he said is about half way through, but interestingly he cannot listen to music while he is writing.

He said: "When I am writing I can't have any music playing because the rhythm get in the way.

"I don't mind other noise like traffic, pneumatic drills...

"But with music I have got to stop and listen. The rhythm of the music interferes with the rhythm of the sentence."

He enjoys woodwork as a hobby, which he said gives a bit of light relief from writing adding: "Writing is hard work. It is a laborious process. It is a boring process which is absolutely necessary.

"But sometimes I enjoy it very much. Sometimes I don't enjoy it at all- it is a slog."

And with that he returned to writing The Book of Dust, which I asked when he hopes to finish, to which he replied: "It won't come out until it is ready."

Public Passions with Philip Pullman and the Orchestra of St John's is at Windsor Festival on September 18 at 8pm. Tickets are £17.50 to £34.50 from 01753 853888 or go to www.theatreroyalwindsor.co.uk.

To find out more about the full programme of Windsor Festival go to www.windsorfestival.com