Philip Pullman at The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival

In the second of The Times exclusive reports from the festival, we hear from the author of His Dark Materials about his latest work inspired by The Magnificent Seven

Click to listen to Philip Pullman talk about stealing stories at the Oxford Literary Festival

Oxford town hall was packed to the gunnels on the evening of Monday, March 31, for the launch of Philip Pullman’s new book: Once upon a Time in the North, a marvellous tale of derring-do set in the world he created in his great Dark Materials trilogy.
James Naughtie, who interviewed Pullman, was scrupulous in not giving away the plot, but it involves Lee Scoresby’s first meeting with Iorek Byrnison and has the pace of an old-fashioned western. Which is no coincidence, because Pullman stole the story from the film The Magnificent Seven. I could listen to Pullman speak forever: he is a spellbinding storyteller, as you will hear if you listen to the podcast.

Although many of his audience were children, he did not talk down to them and even risked a quotation from the philosopher William James: “Sow an action and you reap a habit: sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.” He used this line to illustrate the way in which Lee Scoresby – a cowboy-turned-aeronaut – is faced with choices early in life that determine his fate later on the trilogy.