Former English teacher Sir Philip, 78, goes on to describe what he sees as real-life enemies of imagination.
He highlights “the education policy of the government, which insists on learning things off by heart, sitting in rows and walking silently down corridors”, along with learning about the grammar of language “before you can use it”, calling this “nonsense”.
The writer, who is clearly a fan of using the imagination, as evidenced in his writing, calls it “a form of perception”.
He explains that his final book in the trilogy is about the the realm of the “Rose Field, in which things exist that you can only see with your imagination”.
“They’re there but you can’t see them if you don’t imagine them, for example, ghosts, wishes, hopes, memories…
“Things you can’t necessarily weigh, measure or analyse chemically, but which are there nonetheless, such as love, fear, hope. That’s what Lyra has discovered in the course of this book.”
He’s also an outspoken critic of organised religion.
“The arguments I have are with people in power who use religion to make other people do things… religion gives them a sense of extra certainty when they do that because they believe that they’re fulfilling the will of God,” he says.
