June 21, 2011 · 10:37 am
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Wed 20th July: Philip Pullman Fund-raising Event

Philip Pullman will be speaking at an event to raise funds to save Brent’s libraries. He will read from his new book, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, talk to novelist Maggie Gee and answer questions.

Event on: Wednesday 20 July, 7pm in Queens Park Community School hall, Aylestone Avenue, NW6 7BQ (Nearest stations: Queen’s Park, Brondesbury Park, Kensal Rise).

Tickets at £10 available from:

  • The Lexi Cinema, Chamberlayne Road, NW10
  • Queens Park Books, 87 Salusbury Road, NW6 (tel. 0207 625 1008)
  • L’Angolos deli, College Rd, NW10
  • Tickets also available on the door

Philip Pullman Event Poster

8 Comments

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  • HW Scott

    I have read very carefully, and been horrified by, Philip Pullman’s book The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ.  A search of the amazon book reviews will reveal at least one one-star review.  It is a tragedy that libraries stock such destructive books as this one by Pullman.  It makes a mockery of historical fact and of fiction and of scholarship, and directly attacks the civilization upon which Britain is built.  If Pullman wants to invent a character who is wholly fictional, and write about him/her/it, then fine;  but to write that Jesus Christ was really two people, twins, Jesus and Christ, and that Jesus died on the cross but did not rise from the dead, while his scheming twin brother Christ passed himself off as the risen Jesus, is not only ludicrously absurd and impossible to have happened, but it is devastatingly harmful to those who have no religious ackground of their own which would enable them to laugh Pullman out of court.  It is Pullman’s storytelljing that needs to be ridiculed, not the noble historical account of the figuire of Jesus Christ.as he is portrayed in the New Testament.  Pullman has destroyed his professional integrity by passing off as history what is the product of his own perverted imagination.    The majority of readers in this post-Christian society of ours will assume that most, if not all, of Pulklman’s story is the real historical fact.  It is disgraceful that Pullman should trade on this, to publish this novel. 

    It is worth my while saying that I do not judge Pullman’s conscience:  that is between him and God.  But I can and do judge and utterly condemn what is objectively the betrayal of his professional integrity. 

    I hope that the organizers of the savethelibraries campaign will withdraw the invitation to Pullman to speak.

    • Maggiegee_novelist

      Dear HW Scott,

      I too have  read His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman’s trilogy, and  The Good Man Jesus… You are entitled to your opinions, because this is a free country. By the same token, Philip Pullman is entitled to express his. It’s worth noting that the Archbishop of Canterbury praised the stage production of His Dark Materials and had two long public discussions with Philip. We have been sent good wishes for our campaign and for this event by our local vicar, and we are very grateful to Philip for giving his services free to help Brent campaigners fight for our public libraries. He has already done so much to save Oxfordshire libraries; and to me, libraries are undisputed social goods.

      Kind regards
      Maggie Gee

      • Hwscott

        Maggie Gee,
        Thank you for your comment.  The right of Pullman to publish his views does not mean that his views are correct.  I do not subscribe to the view that there is no such thing as truth, and that anyone’s view is as good as anyone else’s view.  Pullman’s views are bad fiction, bad history, and bad theology.  They are also harmful. 

        I do not know the detail of Archbishop Williams’s commentary on The Dark Materials.  But may I refer you to my review of The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ which is published on amazon.co.uk, where I disagree profoundly with another Anglican vicar who  sees a lot of good to be found in reading this book.  I may say that other statements by Dr Williams give me no confidence in his theological wisdom either.

        In this world there are of course good and evil.  I repeat,  without judging Pullman’s conscience, that this book of his contributes to the destrucive pan of the scale.

        Best wishes.

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