'Philip Pullman taught me English at school'

Sir Philip Pullman's books have sold 49 million copies across the globe

A former student of world-renowned fantasy novelist Sir Philip Pullman has said he was "fantastic and really engaging" teacher.

The final book of Sir Philip's hugely popular series about Lyra Silvertongue - the heroine of His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust trilogies - is published on Thursday.

But years before his books had sold more than 49 million copies, the author taught English in his home city of Oxford, where the two trilogies are set.

During the 1970s and 80s he worked at schools including Marston Middle School, where Mike O'Connor was one of his students.

He said Sir Philip had been a "fantastic and really engaging" teacher, who was "just so creative".

"He used to write the school play every year, and I think that was sort of the early stages of his writing, albeit not necessarily the very beginning," he said.

Mr O'Connor said he had starred in one such production written by Sir Philip, where he played a villain in the Arabian Golden Age-set production.

"The highlight was having to get a custard pie in the face - it was just loads of fun, really creative and a real stand out," he said.

But Sir Philip's teaching was not all custard pies and creative writing.

"He [Sir Philip] was strict," Mr O'Connor said.

"Once, when my best friends and I all got caught doing some sort of naughtiness, Mr Pullman gave us 500 lines each and we had to stay in at lunch break.

"I'll tell you now it doesn't sound like a lot, but it took half the week and was pretty painful on the old arms."

Sir Philip spent his younger days teaching English at schools across Oxford

He said Sir Philip had remembered him on the one he had seen him since his school days - which came when the author was being interviewed at Mr O'Connor's former workplace, Radio Oxford.

"I did bump into him once and I was quite pleased that he remembered me," he said.

"Oxford is that kind of place - I didn't live in live in north Oxford but I went to school there and it seemed like half the people's parents were writers or academics.

"There were just famous people around all over the place."

The Rose Field, Sir Philip's sixth and final book in his series about Lyra Silvertongue follows his heroine's story up to her early 20s.

The character was 11 when she was introduced in the best-selling and award-winning first His Dark Materials book, Northern Lights, in 1995.

The Rose Field, Sir Philip's final book in his series about Lyra Silvertongue, is published on Thursday

Mr O'Connor said one of his daughters had gone on to "love" the stories, even taking a trip from their home of London up to Oxford Botanic Garden to see Lyra's Bench, a significant location in the books.

He said his daughter had once been divided into groups during school English lessons that were named after famous authors - including JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and Pullman.

"When my daughter came home and told me, I said one of those was my teacher and she said: 'What!'."

"You don't always remember all of your teachers from childhood, but even if Mr Pullman hadn't become a famous author, we'd all still remember him really fondly," he added.