Philip Pullman interview: Chapter and verse

NOT SO long ago, the author Philip Pullman was taking a stroll past a bench in Oxford's Botanic Gardens, the site of deeply affecting pivotal scenes between Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, the young heroes of his bestselling trilogy, His Dark Materials, when something unusual caught his eye.

He takes up the story. "I saw something on the bench that from a distance looked like a handbag. But once I got closer, I could see that it was a carved mahogany heart with the words 'For Lyra and Will' inscribed on it. I was touched. I thought it was rather charming," he says in his characteristically understated fashion.

A photo of the lovingly crafted object is now the screensaver on his wife's laptop. But the mahogany heart is also an apt symbol for the way in which Pullman's stories have moved his readers. His trilogy – he is also responsible for the hugely popular series of Sally Lockhart novels – has sold millions of copies worldwide because of the visceral power of his storytelling. Not for nothing does the author have film-maker Billy Wilder's first rule of writing affixed to the wall by his desk: "Grab 'em by the throat and never let 'em go."

It is this absolute faith in the potency of storytelling that drew Pullman to his latest venture. He is the principal judge in Off by Heart, an ambitious and inspiring BBC2 scheme to encourage children to become more involved in poetry. During the past year, 1,500 primary schools across the UK have taken part in a poetry recital competition. The 12 best have gone through to a final in Oxford, hosted by Jeremy Paxman. The hope is that by the end of the process, poetry will not seem like a foreign language to the youngsters. A documentary about the year-long enterprise will be screened on BBC2 tonight.

The finalists in Off By Heart include a Scot, Talia Mathers, nine, from Aberdeen. She performs The King's Breakfast by AA Milne with gusto, adopting different voices for the characters.

PULLMAN is 62, has been married to Judith since 1970, and is the father of two grown-up sons. He offers me orange juice as I take a seat in the drawing room of his welcoming home on the outskirts of Oxford. As you might expect, the house is overflowing with books. An engaging, witty man, he is fired, above all, by a burning desire to communicate his passion for literature. The eyes of this balding, bespectacled former teacher suddenly light up when the discussion turns to writing.

He is evangelical, for instance, about the importance of getting children hooked on poetry from a young age. That's why he was instantly attracted by the idea of Off By Heart. He believes immersion in poetry has enduring benefits. "The children who take part in Off By Heart will get some exercise for that much under-used mental muscle, the memory. If I come across a poem I like, I commit it to memory. The value of poetry is that it's rhythmic and musical – which is in itself an aide memoire.

"The children will also gain a familiarity with great language and a knowledge of poems which will stay with them for a life time. Early exposure to poetry gives you confidence with language and makes you less likely to be daunted by Shakespeare."

He also has high hopes that Off By Heart, which is part of the BBC's current Poetry Season, will raise the profile of the art-form. "English poetry is one of the richest sources of literature in the whole world," he says. "If everything vanished from this country, we'd still be known for our poetry. But we undervalue it, and that's because we have become estranged from the physical nature of poetry. Saying poetry aloud returns us to the idea of getting it in our mouths and nerves. It's about feeling it."

Poetry is sometimes impenetrable and elusive, but in Pullman's eyes that can be a plus point. "Children might not immediately understand it, but that doesn't matter. After all, what does the Jabberwocky mean? TS Eliot said poetry communicates before it is understood. When I was training teachers, they often used to think that poetry was merely a fancy way of saying simple things and would try to translate it into easier language. But that destroys it. Remember the song Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered? It's worth being bothered and bewildered by poetry in order to be bewitched."

That prompts Pullman to mount what he calls "one of my hobby horses". He believes that "before they're even able to sit up, every young child should be surrounded by nursery rhymes. They engage with the music and the rhythm long before they understand its meaning. If they're told nursery rhymes as babies, then children are accustomed to the idea that language is fun, a source of pleasure. I feel sad for children for whom language is merely a series of random constructions and curses."

Pullman has seen the positive effects of poetry in his own life. "When he was four, my son had periods when he couldn't sleep. I'd sit in his bedroom reciting to him poems that I knew off by heart. He understood less than 10 per cent, but he loved it all the same."

The author underlines that our sense of self is often constructed on a foundation of stories.

"We process our own information through stories. We tell ourselves stories about what just happened and what is going to happen, and we re-process failures as triumphs. That's the natural way the human mind works.

"If you have lots of stories in your head, you have great models of how to behave – with courage, kindness or wisdom. Stories are a great source of moral education."

That does not mean that Pullman thinks literature should be preachy – far from it. After all, one of the strongest ideas in His Dark Materials is that everyone should be allowed freedom of thought. "It's very important not to be didactic," he declares. "The function of Pride and Prejudice is not to teach us not to be proud and prejudiced. That's just one of the side effects."

But don't people write to Pullman all the time telling him how much they have learnt from his books?

"They do," he replies. "But I'm not going to write back to them and say, 'No, you haven't learnt anything from my books. You've got it all wrong!' What a reader thinks is no business of a writer's. Once a book is published, it's meaning only emerges in contact with the reader. You can't tell them what they should think."

Pullman, who is currently working on The Book of Dust, an epic companion piece to His Dark Materials, has no time for those who like to tell others what they should think. That's why the trilogy proffers such a searing critique of organised religion. Not surprisingly, the film of the first part – entitled The Golden Compass – precipitated the ire of the religious right in the US. Although the movie clocked up an impressive $330 million worldwide, a vociferous campaign to boycott it damaged its box- office take in the US. But the writer simply shrugs off the controversy his work provokes. "The net result of their prohibitions is more sales."

All the same, Pullman is anxious not to be pigeonholed as an atheist; he feels that would restrict his scope as a writer. "That's why I've always refused to be a spokesman or a vice-president of anything. Otherwise, everything you do has to be calculated – 'What's the party line?' You have to be free of that if you tell stories. You have to be able to inhabit anyone."

Pullman leads a very full life. When he's not writing, he loves "banging away on the piano" and carpentry – in the middle of his study stands a beautiful wooden rocking horse that he has made for his grandchildren.

His other main pastime is responding to fan mail. He devotes every Sunday to methodically replying to correspondence. "I could spend all my life just answering letters – I even get fan mail from the tax man! – but then I wouldn't be able to write more books. After writing Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell spent the rest of her life answering letters and never wrote another book."

Pullman has thought of one more hobby he could take up. Should Hollywood decide against making movie versions of the second and third parts of His Dark Materials, he has a plan. "If the studios don't make the next two films, I might do them myself with puppets in the garden shed, like Noggin the Nog."

There is a beat, before Pullman breaks into a broad grin: "Wouldn't cost very much."

• Off By Heart is on BBC2 Scotland at 7:30pm tonight (also BBC2 at 9pm).

• A stage adaptation of Pullman's His Dark Materials, Parts One and Two, is currently showing at Edinburgh's Festival Theatre until Sunday