There is always one big Christmas movie that provides seasonal box-office
bounty, and this year, it is again — after The Polar Express and The
Chronicles of Narnia — likely to be one with a suitably icy theme: The
Golden Compass, starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. It’s based, of
course, on the first part of the trilogy His Dark Materials by Philip
Pullman, although in this country, the opening volume was called Northern
Lights.
As the original title suggests, the frozen wastes of the Arctic do feature,
but the star locale is, without doubt, Pullman’s adopted home of Oxford,
playground for the wild-child heroine Lyra Belacqua.
So, it’s not just the winter temperatures making Oxford’s tourism authorities
rub their hands together. If the movie performs as its producer, New Line
Cinema, hopes, Oxford expects a spin-off Christmas present, with the film
doing for the city’s visitor numbers what The Lord of the Rings did for New
Zealand. And, in anticipation of that, an official Philip Pullman tour will
debut in 2008, joining the existing CS Lewis, Tolkien, Morse and college
walks. I took a place on the test run.
I say “run” advisedly, because there was a lot to cover. After we met outside
the tourist information office on Broad Street, our Blue Badge guide, Terry,
told us six guinea pigs that she intended to introduce us not only to
Pullman the author and his books, but also — having spent time with the
film’s location manager — to the parts of Oxford used in the movie. It was a
tall order in two hours.
So it was straight into Turl Street and Exeter College. Exeter is Pullman’s
alma mater (and JRR Tolkien’s) and is recast in the novel as Jordan College.
Pullman read English there in the 1960s, although, if he is to be believed,
he also read a disproportionate number of American thrillers — and he didn’t
shine. In the books, Jordan is larger, richer and creepier than the real
thing, and is the barely tamed Lyra’s fiefdom, as she scampers up on the
roof or explores the cellars and gets up to mischief.
We moved on to the covered market, a Dickensian emporium in the book — just
the place for an organic chicken and a decaf in reality — and the site of
one of the child-snatchings that kick-starts the plot. Then it was along
Cornmarket to St Giles, while Terry regaled us with excerpts from the books
and pointed out the landmarks that Pullman has woven into them, sometimes
changing the names (Jesus College, Lawrence of Arabia’s old haunt, is St
Michael’s; Christ Church becomes Cardinal’s; and the Bodleian reverts to its
original name of Bodley’s Library).
Running concurrently with the fantasy city was a second Oxford, because the
middle book, The Subtle Knife, introduces Will, who lives in the genuine
quotidian Oxford, with its Burger Kings, pedestrian precincts and
unfortunate 1960s extensions. The knife in question enables him to cut
between the parallel dimensions that separate the dreaming-spire
doppelgängers and meet Lyra.
The highlight of the walk for me was reacquainting myself with the crepuscular
Pitt Rivers Museum (Parks Road; Tue-Sun 10am-4.30pm, Mon noon-4.30pm) — a
marvellously old-fashioned repository of anthropological artefacts that
clearly fired Pullman’s imagination. A trepanned skull is here, featuring a
neat hole just like the Tatars make, and the clothes worn in polar regions,
such as Inuit parkas. And it is where Lyra is observed and approached by Sir
Charles, who plans to steal her alethiometer.
What’s an alethiometer? It’s . . .
Okay, let’s stop there. This walk is, to be honest, a train spotter’s — or
should that be a Pullman spotter’s? — dream, and you do need to have read
the novels (which might be billed as children’s literature, but which
encompass Blake, Milton, quantum physics, string theory, The Wizard of Oz
and The Magnificent Seven), or at least have seen the movie, to get the most
out of it. But then, if the movie delivers (and New Line makes the sequels),
a sizeable proportion of the population could soon have done that. Although
the official walks don’t start until next year, if you can’t wait, it isn’t
difficult to make up your own tour in the meantime.
To facilitate a DIY version, I would recommend buying the slim companion
volume to the trilogy, called Lyra’s Oxford (which, with the author’s
permission, will also be the title of the walking tour next year): it comes
not only with a map of Pullman’s alternative version of the city, which
genuinely helps you orientate yourself in both worlds, but also a short
story that places Lyra back in Jordan and Jericho.
After all the epic battles and proselytising in the final novel, The Amber
Spyglass, Lyra and the Birds returns to the wide-eyed wonder of Northern
Lights. It also suggests that Oxford itself is an even more crucial
character in the hotly anticipated The Book of Dust (rumoured to be due in
2009). Also invaluable, if a little exhausting in its obsessiveness, is The
Rough Guide to Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials by Paul Simpson. Plus,
you should check college opening times on www.ox.ac.uk/
visitors_friends/.
Meanwhile, back on the pilot official Pullman tour, after movie-location
scouting at New College, the Radcliffe Camera and University Church, we
walked briskly down the still-picturesque High Street to the Botanic Garden
(£3, Mar-Oct and weekends, free otherwise; see www.botanic-
garden.ox.ac.uk for opening times). This is where the trilogy concludes,
with a poignant is-that-it? parting (which Russell T Davies shamelessly
co-opted for the Doctor Who-Rose finale) between Will and Lyra. The crucial
bench is often adorned with messages to one or other of them.
Finally, we strolled to the meadows of the Thames/Isis. This is where the mail
zeppelin to London departs from and returns to. And, again, Pullman was
nudged by reality. There is a plaque on Christ Church’s wall marking the
first balloon ascent by an Englishman (1784) from the adjacent meadows — James
Sadler, pastry cook and aeronaut.
Even after a two-hour canter, we left parts of Lyra’s city still untouched —
the canal, for example, home to the gyptians, and Jericho. But what the tour
did, thanks to Terry, was re-create the author’s trick of overlaying a
different but strangely believable version of Oxford on the existing town.
Such is Pullman’s attention to detail that, even if you don’t take Terry
along, you’ll find that, with a copy of Lyra’s Oxford under your arm and a
map of today’s city for comparison, you can be transported into a world
where you might just glimpse a feral little girl and her daemon skipping
gracefully over the rooftops between the spires. And you won’t need a subtle
knife to do it.
Further information: the Lyra’s Oxford Tour (£7.50 adults, £4
under-16s, free for under-5s) will take place on June 13, July 25 and
September 5 next year, but more dates may be added according to demand. The
tourist information centre (15-16 Broad Street) tours can access some
colleges otherwise closed to the public. See www.visitoxford.org
for details of all walks and tours, which are bookable online. There are
other tours that include Pullman not run by the TIC: see www.oxfordguides.co.uk
and www.oxford-on-foot.com.
Reading: Lyra’s Oxford (Corgi £4.99). The Rough Guide to Philip
Pullman’s His Dark Materials by Paul Simpson (£7.99).
Why are these tours on all Fridays?! Surely a Saturday would be better ...
Jen, Oxford, England
I have always wanted to do something like this on my own, but I've never had a chance to go to England.
Now I'll -definitely- have to do this!
Mandi, Russellville, Arkansas, USA