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