CELEBRATED novelist Philip Pullman opened Liverpool’s Literary Festival last night.

Pullman, best known for his award-winning His Dark Materials trilogy, the first of which was filmed as The Golden Compass, gave the opening talk at Liverpool University’s Shipping Lines Festival.

At the university’s Sherrington Lecture Theatre, he talked of the smallest possible units of a story. He went on to discuss how these small “elementary particles of narrative” can change their meaning in larger narratives.

Screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce will also feature at Bibby Line Group headquarters, in Duke Street, which was Liverpool’s first public library.

His reading on Saturday , which is by invitation only, has been organised by The Reader Organisation, a charity enabling all people to enjoy literature. He will join director Jane Davis in discussing the necessity of a reading revolution, with great books reaching everyone across the world.

Pullman and Cottrell Boyce are among a host of world-famous authors taking part in the festival, the first of its kind in the city.

Over the weekend, he will be joined by Brian Patten, Carol Ann Duffy and Monica Ali.

The festival, which started last Monday, has already had packed out audiences at literary workshops and school events with the likes of Mal Peet and children’s author Tanya Landman.

FOR more information on the weekend’s events visit www.liv.ac.uk.literaryfestival