Happy Birthday: Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman CBE FRSL (born 19 October 1946) is an English writer. His books include the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials and The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, a fictionalised biography of Jesus. In 2008, The Times named Pullman one of the "50 greatest British writers since 1945". In a 2004 BBC poll, he was named the eleventh most influential person in British culture. He was knighted in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to literature.

Northern Lights, the first volume in His Dark Materials, won the 1995 Carnegie Medal of the Library Association as the year's outstanding English-language children's book. For the Carnegie's 70th anniversary, it was named in the top ten by a panel tasked with compiling a shortlist for a public vote for an all-time favourite. It won that public vote and was named all-time "Carnegie of Carnegies" in June 2007. It was filmed under the book's US title, The Golden Compass. In 2003, His Dark Materials trilogy ranked third in the BBC's The Big Read, a poll of 200 top novels voted by the British public.

[I LOVED Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy and devoured them on my first reading. I've read them all twice again since then. I enjoyed the movie version - especially after picturing Nicole Kidman as Mrs Coulter whilst reading the first book and being delighted when she was picked for the role - but struggled with the BBC adaptation. I might read the trilogy again at some point in the future.]