woo-hoo for Philip Pullman!

Philip Pullman has been awarded the Astrid Lingdren Memorial Award:

"Philip Pullman (United Kingdom) is a master storyteller in a number of genres – from historical novels and fantasy to social realism and highly amusing parodies. With inventiveness, linguistic brilliance and psychological insight he creates and explores his own worlds without losing focus on here and now. Through his strong characters he stands firmly on the side of young people, ruthlessly questioning authority and proclaiming humanism and the power of love whilst maintaining an optimistic belief in the child even in the darkest of situations".

From the official website:

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award was founded by the Swedish government in 2002 and is the world’s largest children’s and youth literature prize....

...Authors, illustrators, story-tellers and promoters of reading are eligible. The award is for life-long work or artistry rather than for individual pieces. The prize can only be awarded to living people.

The body of work must uphold the highest artistic quality and evoke the deeply humanistic spirit that Astrid Lindgren treasured.