Sir Terence David John Pratchett

Sir Terence David John Pratchett Known to world as Terry Pratchett, is one of the most popular authors writing today and is the acclaimed creator of the bestselling Discworld series. The first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983 and there are now 36 books in the series. Long regarded as a significant satirist, Terry has won numerous literary awards, he was appointed OBE in 1998 and was knighted in 2008 New Year Honours list, for services in literature. He has received six honorary doctorates. He was born in 28th of April 1948 at Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. He has said in many interviews that his major source of education was Beaconsfield Public Library (although he has admitted that school must have been some little help). After passing his 11-plus in 1959, he went to technical school rather than the local grammar school because he felt ‘that woodwork would be more fun than Latin’. He has memorized that he hadn’t no real vision of what he wanted to do with his life at that time, and remembers himself as a ‘nondescript student’. One of his childhood dreams was to be an astronomer but he lacked the mathematical skill. Luckily this led him to an interest in American and British science-fiction. His early reading included authors as H.G. Wells and A.C. Doyle and “every book you really ought to read" which he now regards as "getting an education". With his short story The Hades Business published in the school magazine when he was thirteen, and commercially when he was fifteen, Terry was obviously in line for a bright future. Having got five O-levels and started A-level courses in Art, History and English, he decided after the first year to try journalism, and when a job opportunity came up on the Bucks Free Press, he talked things over with his parents, and left school in 1965. Terry got his first 'break' in 1968, when working as a journalist. He came to interview Peter Bander Van Duren co-director of a small publishing company. During the meeting, Terry mentioned he had written a manuscript, The Carpet People. Bander van Duren and his business partner, Colin Smythe (of Colin Smythe Ltd Publishers) published the book in 1971, with a launch party in the carpet department of Heal’s store in Tottenham Court Road, London. Book was illustrated by Terry himself. The book received strong, if few reviews. ‘of quite extraordinary quality’ (Teacher’s World) and ‘a new dimension in imagination ... the prose is beautiful’ (The Irish Times). The book was followed by two science fiction novels The Dark Side of the Sun(1976) and Strata(1981), written by Terry in the dark gloomy winter nights, when he hadn’t nothing better to do. In 1980 Terry was appointed publicity officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board (now PowerGen) with responsibility for three nuclear power stations ‘What leak? -- Oh, that leak’, where he was working when the first of the Discworld novels, The Colour of Magic was published in 1983. (He later joked that he had demonstrated "impeccable timing" by making this career change so soon after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania, USA.) The publishing rights for paperback to The Colour of Magic were soon taken by Corgi Books. Corgi succeeded in getting BBC ‘Woman’s Hour’ to broadcast it as a six-part serial, Corgi’s publication of the first Discworld novel was the turning point in Terry’s writing career, and the BBC later broadcast his third novel, Equal Rites, also on ‘Woman’s Hour’. At the time, it was the only book that had generated so much reaction from their listeners. In 1986 Terry moved to a major publisher because to cope with the bestsellers, he was recommended by Smythe(now his agent) to Victor Gollancz’s SF list, where he got a contract to three titles: Equal Rites, Mort and Sourcery. Until the appearance of The Last Continent, all Discworld novels were published in hardcover by Gollancz, while Corgi published all the paperback editions (except Eric). In September 1987, soon after he had finished writing Mort, Terry decided that he could afford to devote himself to

full-time writing, rather than merely doing so in his spare time after work and anyway, he enjoyed writing more than fielding questions from the Press about malfunctioning nuclear reactors, so he resigned his position with the CEGB. In 1996 both Maskerade and Interesting Times were in the top ten hardcover and paperback lists of titles most in demand prior to Christmas, while Soul Music spent an unbroken run of four weeks in the no.1 position on the paperback bestseller list. In 1997 Reaper Man was the eighth fastest-selling novel in Britain in the past five years: a remarkable achievement for any book at that time, let alone a so-called ‘genre’ novel. (Of course, the Harry Potter phenomenon has changed that market out of all recognition, and we should now be surprised at nothing.) As far as Britain is concerned Terry was the 1990s’ best-selling living fiction author, with over twelve million books sold, which are now running at well over two million books a year. His popularity hasn’t decreased in the new millennium. His books are prominently represented in bookselling lists all over the world. To Terry belongs the title: Author of the most stolen books in Britain. On 11th of December 2007, Terry announced that he had been diagnosed a nearly form of a rare type of Alzheimer (what means that his backside of the brain is beginning to shrink and shrivel). Pratchett said to fans: “I ain’t dead” (hint to Granny Weatherwax) Comforting the fans, Pratchett stated that he feels he has time for "at least a few more books yet", and added that while he understands the impulse to ask 'is there anything I can do?', in this particular case he will only entertain such offers from "very high-end experts in brain chemistry." In March 2008, Pratchett announced he was donating one million US dollars (about £494,000) to the Alzheimer's Research Trust. Pratchett's donation inspired an internet campaign where fans hope to 'Match it for Pratchett, by raising another $1 million. I think there are two kinds of people in the world. One’s who love and enjoy Terry. The others are legumes from planet Zog… Okay that’s actually a little bit overreacted. But that’s the truth. I’ve met only two types of persons: the liker’s and the disliker’s. A good friend of mine read one sentence from the book (Pyramids), and because the sentence contained a word “whale’s vomit”, he refuses to read Pratchett afterwards. Later he commented that he’ll understand me a lot better now. Terry has a quite different writing style: as example his habit not to use chapters, a lot of explaining but still out of topic footnotes, parodying of clichés and popular heroes e.g. Conan the barbarian. His books have sold only over 55 million, which have been translated to 33 languages.

How many of you have read a book from Terry?

The Colour of Magic 1983 The Light Fantastic 1986 Equal Rites 1987 Mort 1987 Sourcery 1988 Wyrd Sisters 1988 Pyramids 1989 Guards! Guards! Faust Eric 1990 Moving Pictures 1990 Reaper Man 1991 Witches Abroad 1991 Small Gods 1992 Lords and Ladies 1992 Men at Arms 1993 Soul Music 1994 Interesting Times 1994 Maskerade 1995 Feet of Clay 1996 Hogfather 1996 Jingo 1997 The Last Continent 1998 Carpe Jugulum 1998 The Fifth Elephant 1999 The Truth 2000 Thief of Time 2001 The Last Hero 2001 The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents 2001 Night Watch 2002 The Wee Free Men 2003 Monstrous Regiment 2003 A Hat Full of Sky 2004 Going Postal 2004 Thud! 2005 Wintersmith 2006 Making Money 2007