Orson, one of our fanartists, recently sent a letter to Pullman and was kind enough to scan in the letter and Pullman's response, and send them to me to put up on the site. You can read Orson's letter here.

The darkmattersociety e-mail group also sent a letter to Pullman awhile back, for which they compiled a list of questions they had and then sent them via snail mail to Pullman Well, he sent us the standard reply, but on the back he scribbled the answers to our questions!

Here's the letter we sent:

Dear Philip Pullman,

We are members of an E-mail group called The Dark Matter Society (darkmattersociety@yahoogroups.com) which is dedicated to discussing fantasy- especialy the His Dark Materials Trilogy. Being huge fans of the series, we have compiled some questions and would appreciate it very much if you would take the time to answer the ones you can.

*Did any of the descriptions of the hell in Dante's Inferno influence your Land of the Dead in The Amber Spy Glass?

*Would you like to see a movie made based on His Dark Materials, and if so, how much control would you want over its production?

*How planned out was His Dark Materials? Did you know exactly what was going to happen next, or did you just keep a general idea of where you wanted to end up in mind?

*There has been a lot of talk about The Book of Dust... Just what will this include, and when can we expect to see it on bookstore shelves?

*The last few chapters of The Amber Spyglass were some of the most touching that i have ever encountered in a book. How do you capture so well the emotions of your characters, and play so easily on the hearts of your readers?

*Are there any plans for a His Dark Materials Role Playing System? That would be great.

*Where did the idea for the daemons come from, why did you use daemons in HDM? Would you like to have a daemon?

*What do you think about the inevitable comparisons with Harry Potter?

*Was Lyra modeled on anyone you know?

*The Gyptians- obviously similar to Gypsies- but the Gyptians are different to gypsies... what was the thinking behind using the term "gyptians"?

Thank you for your time! Sincerely,

The Dark Matter Society

(Front)
(Back)