In the Times today is an article by Philip Pullman on the state of liberty in modern Britain. “We do not know what is happening to us. In the world outside, great events take place, great figures move and act, great matters unfold, and this nation of Albion murmurs and stirs while malevolent voices whisper in the darkness – the voices of the new laws that are silently strangling the old freedoms the nation still dreams it enjoys.” The article has already aroused considerable response online. Thanks to Ronni for the tip. Read more.
The writer will be speaking tomorrow afternoon in London, 28th Feburary, to deliver the second keynote at Convention on Modern Liberty, hosted by the Institute of Education. One of the main questions for Saturday will ask: “Are our freedoms and rights threatened by an over-powerful state and if so how do we defend ourselves from this?” Unfortunately, tickets for the London addresses are already sold out, but convention events will be taking place at satellite conventions across the UK: in Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Glasgow, and Manchester. Click here to find out more.
In the first of a series of six talks by celebrated authors on their favourite paintings at London’s Courtauld Gallery, Philip Pullman considers Manet’s ambiguous masterpiece, “A Bar at the Folies-Bergère”. Watch the video courtesy of The Guardian. Thanks to BlackSatinDancer.
Philip Pullman will be at the Oxford Playhouse on April 24th for a discussion of His Dark Materials as part of the Playhouse’s 70th anniversary celebrations. He will talk about “the genesis of an alternate Oxford” and “his impressions of the adaptation of his epic trilogy, in the week before it takes to the Playhouse stage”. He will also talk about the differences between stage and screen, comparing the play with the film of The Golden Compass. Tickets can be purchased for £11(£9) through the Oxford Playhouse website.
Don’t get you hopes too high; there’s still no sign of any new movies. But West Yorkshire Playhouse is looking to add eight budding actors to play the roles of children in the stage play. For more information see this article in the oxford mail.
This is Oxfordshire reports that Philip Pullman has been chosen for an honorary degree by his Alma Mater, the University of Oxford. “Two years ago,” he said, “I was given the Freedom of the City, so now I have been given one award by the city and one by the university.”
The article notes that, in the past, Pullman has also been awarded honorary degrees by Oxford Brookes, the University of East Anglia and Dundee University, and is an honorary professor at Bangor in North Wales. It also features information on Pullman’s education, the Jericho boatyard campaign, the film of The Golden Compass and the John Blake comic. Read the article at This is Oxfordshire.
