Philip Pullman is the recipient of the IHEU International Humanist Award. Giving the award, Matt Cherry described His Dark Materials as a triumphant work of freethought. Matt's two-year-old daughter is named after Pullman's character Lyra.

Accepting the award, Mr Pullman said that we now live in a world warmed by the Enlightenment and that this was worth defending. "Nothing human is alien to me," he said. The problem with religion is its claim to authority, he added. All deities and all devils reside in the human breast.