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Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman, English author and academic

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Born
October 19, 1946
Age in 2026
80
Zodiac sign
Libra
Birth year
1946

About Philip Pullman

Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman (born 19 October 1946) is an English writer. He is best known for the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials. The first volume, Northern Lights (1995), won the Carnegie Medal and later the "Carnegie of Carnegies". The third volume, The Amber Spyglass (2000), won the Whitbread Award. In 2017, he started a companion trilogy, The Book of Dust, of which the final novel, The Rose Field, was published in October 2025. He was knighted in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to literature, and has been awarded several honorary doctorates and other honours. Children's Literature Laureate Michael Morpurgo said of Pullman: "The range and depth of his imagination and of his learning certainly make him the Tolkien of our day". His father, Alfred Outram Pullman, a Royal Air Force pilot, was killed in a plane crash in Kenya in 1954, when Pullman was seven, and was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC).

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Philip Pullman timeline

  1. His father, Alfred Outram Pullman, a Royal Air Force pilot, was killed in a plane crash in Kenya in 1954, when Pullman was seven, and was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC).
  2. The first volume, Northern Lights (1995), won the Carnegie Medal and later the "Carnegie of Carnegies".
  3. The third volume, The Amber Spyglass (2000), won the Whitbread Award.
  4. In 2017, he started a companion trilogy, The Book of Dust, of which the final novel, The Rose Field, was published in October 2025.

The world when Philip Pullman was born

Philip Pullman was born in 1946. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1946

  • #1 song"The Christmas Song" – Nat King Cole
  • Top movieThe Best Years of Our Lives
  • Best-selling bookThe King's General – Daphne du Maurier

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst NBA (BAA) season begins
  • Top headlineUnited Nations General Assembly holds its first session
  • Technology milestoneENIAC — first general-purpose electronic computer
  • Defining fadBaby boom begins
  • Notable inventionTupperware
  • World population2.43 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderHarry S. Truman
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population141.4M

1946 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Philip Pullman's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19462026
Gas$0.21$3.45/gal
Average home$6,600$435,000
Average income$4,300$67,500
Minimum wage$0.40$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.35$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population141.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.