I went to a Phillip Pullman lecture
And took some notes because he was speaking about children's literature and it was interesting. However he had a bit of a problem starting up the lecture and getting his presentation onto the screen. I wrote "Phillip Pullman can't do Powerpoints" at the top of my book.

It was the first thing he saw when he autographed my book after the lecture. I tried to laugh it off, but my face was roughly the colour of the sun and he half-grimaced and got me out of the queue as quick as possible...
(Mrs Ballunatic counting calories, not votes., Fri 9 Oct 2009, 8:13, 2 replies)

hahaha
that is awesome
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Fri 9 Oct 2009, 10:38, closed)

Spoke to him a couple of years ago
At the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival at Christ Church College (he was sitting next to me in the audience at a talk).

I asked him whether he'd been inspired to call Lee Scoresby and "aeronaut" by virtue of the fact that there is a plaque on Christ Church Meadow, a couple of hundred yards from where we were sitting, celebrating Britain's first "aeronaut" (ie balloonist).

He said he'd never seen the plaque, asked me where it was, and promised to go off and investigate. Nice bloke.
(Capo, Fri 9 Oct 2009, 10:44, closed)