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  • Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett,

  • OBE is an English author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known

  • for the Discworld series of about 40 volumes. Pratchett's first novel, The Carpet People,

  • was published in 1971, and since his first Discworld novel was published in 1983, he

  • has written two books a year on average. His Discworld book, Snuff, was at the time of

  • its release the third-fastest-selling hardback adult-audience novel since records began in

  • the United Kingdom, selling 55,000 copies in the first three days.

  • Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s, and has sold over 85 million

  • books worldwide in 37 languages. He is currently the second most-read writer in the UK, and

  • seventh most-read non-US author in the US. Pratchett was appointed Officer of the Order

  • of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the

  • 2009 New Year Honours. In 2001 he won the annual Carnegie Medal for The Amazing Maurice

  • and his Educated Rodents, the first Discworld book marketed for children. He received the

  • World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2010.

  • In December 2007, Pratchett announced that he was suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's

  • disease. Subsequently he made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer's Research

  • Trust, and filmed a programme chronicling his experiences with the disease for the BBC.

  • Background Early life

  • Pratchett was born in 1948 in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, England, the only child

  • of David and Eileen Pratchett, of Hay-on-Wye. His family moved to Bridgwater, Somerset briefly

  • in 1957, following which he passed his eleven plus exam in 1959, earning him a place in

  • John Hampden Grammar School. Pratchett described himself as a "non-descript student" and, in

  • his Who's Who entry, credits his education to the Beaconsfield Public Library.

  • His early interests included astronomy; he collected Brooke Bond tea cards about space,

  • owned a telescope and wanted to be an astronomer, but lacked the necessary mathematical skills.

  • However, this led to an interest in reading British and American science fiction. In turn,

  • this led to attending science fiction conventions from about 1963/4, which stopped when he got

  • his first job a few years later. His early reading included the works of H. G. Wells

  • and Arthur Conan Doyle and "every book you really ought to read" which he now regards

  • as "getting an education". At age 13, Pratchett published his first short

  • story "The Hades Business" in the school magazine. It was published commercially when he was

  • 15. Pratchett earned 5 O-levels and started A-level

  • courses in Art, English and History. Pratchett's first career choice was journalism and he

  • left school at 17 in 1965 to start working for the Bucks Free Press where he wrote, amongst

  • other things, several stories for the Children's Circle section under the name Uncle Jim. One

  • of these episodic stories contains named characters from The Carpet People. These stories are

  • currently part of a project by the Bucks Free Press to make them available online. While

  • on day release he finished his A-Level in English and took a proficiency course for

  • journalists. Early career

  • Pratchett had his first breakthrough 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, Pratchett

  • 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

  • illustrations by Pratchett himself. The book received strong, if few reviews. The book

  • was followed by the science fiction novels The Dark Side of the Sun, published in 1976,

  • and Strata, published in 1981. After various positions in journalism, in

  • 1980 Pratchett became Press Officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board in an

  • area which covered three nuclear power stations. 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, U.S., and said he would "write a book about my experiences, if I thought

  • anyone would believe it". The first Discworld novel The Colour of Magic

  • was published in 1983 by Colin Smythe in hardback. The publishing rights for paperback were soon

  • taken by Corgi, an imprint of Transworld, the current publisher. Pratchett received

  • further popularity after the BBC's Woman's Hour broadcast The Colour of Magic as a serial

  • in six parts, after it was published by Corgi in 1985 and later Equal Rites. Subsequently,

  • rights for hardback were taken by the publishing house Victor Gollancz, which remained Pratchett's

  • publisher until 1997, and Smythe became Pratchett's agent. Pratchett was the first fantasy author

  • published by Gollancz. Pratchett gave up working for the CEGB in

  • 1987 after finishing the fourth Discworld novel, Mort, to focus fully on and make his

  • living through writing. His sales increased quickly and many of his books occupied top

  • places on the best-seller list. According to The Times, Pratchett was the top-selling

  • and highest earning UK author in 1996. Some of his books have been published by Doubleday,

  • another Transworld imprint. In the US, Pratchett is published by HarperCollins.

  • According to the Bookseller's Pocket Yearbook from 2005, in 2003 Pratchett's UK sales amounted

  • to 3.4% of the fiction market by hardback sales and 3.8% by value, putting him in second

  • place behind J. K. Rowling (6% and 5.6% respectively), while in the paperback sales list Pratchett

  • came 5th with 1.2% by sales and 1.3% by value (behind James Patterson (1.9% and 1.7%), Alexander

  • McCall Smith, John Grisham and J. R. R. Tolkien). His sales in the UK alone are more than 2.5 million

  • copies a year. Current life

  • Terry Pratchett married his wife Lyn in 1968, and they moved to Rowberrow, Somerset, in

  • 1970. Their daughter Rhianna Pratchett, who is also a writer, was born there in 1976.

  • In 1993 the family moved to Broad Chalke, a village west of Salisbury, Wiltshire, where

  • they currently live. He lists his recreations as "writing, walking, computers, life". He

  • describes himself as a humanist and is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association

  • and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society. He is the patron of the Friends

  • of High Wycombe Library. Pratchett is well known for his penchant for

  • wearing large, black fedora hats, as seen on the inside back covers of most of his books.

  • His style has been described as "more that of urban cowboy than city gent."

  • Concern for the future of civilisation has prompted him to install five kilowatts of

  • photovoltaic cells (for solar energy) at his house. In addition, his interest in astronomy

  • since childhood has led him to build an observatory in his garden. An asteroid (127005 Pratchett)

  • is named after him. On 31 December 2008 it was announced that

  • Pratchett was to be knighted (as a Knight Bachelor) in the Queen's 2009 New Year Honours.

  • He formally received the accolade at Buckingham Palace on 18 February 2009. Afterwards he

  • said, "You can't ask a fantasy writer not to want a knighthood. You know, for two pins

  • I'd get myself a horse and a sword." In late 2009, he did make himself a sword, with the

  • help of his friends. He told a Times Higher Education interviewer that "'At the end of

  • last year I made my own sword. I dug out the iron ore from a field about 10 miles away

  • - I was helped by interested friends. We lugged 80 kilos of iron ore, used clay from the garden

  • and straw to make a kiln, and lit the kiln with wildfire by making it with a bow.' Colin

  • Smythe, his long-term friend and agent, donated some pieces of meteoric iron - 'thunderbolt

  • iron has a special place in magic and we put that in the smelt, and I remember when we

  • sawed the iron apart it looked like silver. Everything about it I touched, handled and

  • so forth... And everything was as it should have been, it seemed to me.'"

  • Alzheimer's disease In August 2007 Pratchett was misdiagnosed

  • as having had a minor stroke in 2004 or 2005 that was believed to have damaged the right

  • side of his brain. While his motor skills had been affected, the observed damage had

  • not impaired his ability to write. On 11 December 2007, Pratchett posted online that he had

  • been newly diagnosed with a very rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's disease, which

  • he said "lay behind this year's phantom 'stroke'." He has a rare form of the disease called posterior

  • cortical atrophy, in which areas at the back of the brain begin to shrink and shrivel.

  • Describing it as an 'embuggerance' in a radio interview, Pratchett appealed to people to

  • "keep things cheerful", and proclaimed that "we are taking it fairly philosophically down

  • here and possibly with a mild optimism." Leading the way, 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." Discussing his diagnosis at the

  • Bath Literature Festival in early 2008, Pratchett revealed that he now found it too difficult

  • to write dedications when signing books. In March 2008, Pratchett announced he was

  • donating US$1,000,000 (about £494,000 at the time) to the Alzheimer's Research Trust,

  • saying that he had spoken to at least three brain tumour survivors yet he had spoken to

  • no survivors of Alzheimer's disease, and that he was shocked "to find out that funding for

  • Alzheimer's research is just 3% of that to find cancer cures." Of his donation Pratchett

  • said: "I am, along with many others, scrabbling to stay ahead long enough to be there when

  • the Cure comes along." In April 2008, the BBC began working with

  • Pratchett to make a two-part documentary series based on his illness. The first part of Terry

  • Pratchett: Living With Alzheimer's was broadcast on BBC Two on 4 February 2009, drawing 2.6m

  • viewers and a 10.4% audience share. The second, broadcast on 11 February 2009, drew 1.72m

  • viewers and a 6.8% audience share. The programme won a BAFTA award in the Factual Series category.

  • He also made an appearance on The One Show on 15 May 2008, talking about his condition.

  • He was the subject and interviewee of the 20 May 2008 edition of On the Ropes (Radio

  • 4), discussing Alzheimer's and how it had affected his life.

  • On 8 June 2008, news reports indicated that Pratchett had an experience, which he described

  • as: "It is just possible that once you have got past all the gods that we have created

  • with big beards and many human traits, just beyond all that, on the other side of physics,

  • there just may be the ordered structure from which everything flows" and "I don't actually

  • believe in anyone who could have put that in my head". He went into further detail on

  • Front Row, in which he was asked if this was a shift in his beliefs: "A shift in me in

  • the sense I heard my father talk to me when I was in the garden one day. But I'm absolutely

  • certain that what I heard was my memories of my father. An engram, or something in my

  • head...This is not about God, but somewhere around there is where gods come from."

  • On 26 November 2008, Pratchett met the Prime Minister Gordon Brown and asked for an increase

  • in dementia research funding. Since August 2008 Pratchett has been testing

  • a prototype device to address his condition. Despite some improvements in his condition,

  • the ability of the device to alter the course of the illness has been met with scepticism.

  • In an article published mid-2009, Pratchett stated that he wishes to commit 'assisted

  • suicide' (although he dislikes that term) before his disease progresses to a critical

  • point. Pratchett was selected to give the 2010 BBC Richard Dimbleby Lecture, entitled

  • Shaking Hands With Death, which was broadcast on 1 February 2010. Pratchett introduced his

  • lecture on the topic of assisted death, but the main text was read by his friend Tony

  • Robinson because of difficulties Pratchett has with reading – a result of his condition.

  • Because of his condition, Pratchett currently writes either by dictating to his assistant,

  • Rob Wilkins, or by using speech recognition software.

  • In June 2011 Pratchett presented a one-off BBC television documentary entitled Terry

  • Pratchett: Choosing to Die on the subject of assisted death. It won the Best Documentary

  • award at the Scottish BAFTAs in November 2011. He has also stated several times that, when

  • he dies, he wishes to hear Thomas Tallis's Spem in alium played in the background.

  • In September 2012 Pratchett stated in an interview "“I have to tell you that I thought I’d

  • be a lot worse than this by now, and so did my specialist." In the interview it was stated

  • that the cognitive part of his mind was "untouched", and his symptoms relating to the condition

  • were physical (which is normal for PCA) and that putting a book together was actually

  • better and easier now that it was done by dictation.

  • Interests Computers and the Internet

  • Pratchett started to use computers for writing as soon as they were available to him. His

  • first computer was a Sinclair ZX81, the first computer he used properly for writing was

  • an Amstrad CPC 464, later replaced by a PC. Pratchett was one of the first authors routinely

  • to use the Internet to communicate with fans, and has been a contributor to the Usenet newsgroup

  • alt.fan.pratchett since 1992. However, he does not consider the Internet a hobby, just

  • another "thing to use". He now has many computers in his house. When he travels, he always takes

  • a portable computer with him to write. His experiments with computer upgrades are reflected

  • in Hex. Pratchett is also an avid video game player,

  • and collaborated in the creation of a number of game adaptations of his books. He favours

  • games that are "intelligent and have some depth", citing Half-Life 2 and fan missions

  • from Thief as examples. Natural history

  • Pratchett has a fascination with natural history that he has referred to many times. Pratchett

  • owns a greenhouse full of carnivorous plants. In 1995, a fossil sea-turtle from the Eocene

  • epoch of New Zealand was named in honour of him Psephophorus terrypratchetti by the palaeontologist

  • Richardhler. Orangutans

  • Pratchett is a trustee for the Orangutan Foundation UK but is pessimistic about the animal's future.

  • Following Pratchett's lead, fan events such as the Discworld Conventions have adopted

  • the Orangutan Foundation as their nominated charity, which has been acknowledged by the

  • foundation. One of Pratchett's most popular fictional characters, the Librarian of the

  • Unseen University's Library, is a wizard who was transformed into an orangutan in a magical

  • accident and decides to remain in that condition as it is so convenient for his work.

  • Amateur astronomy Pratchett has an observatory in his back garden

  • and is a keen astronomer. He has appeared on the BBC programme The Sky at Night.

  • Writing career Awards

  • Pratchett received a knighthood for "services to literature" in the 2009 UK New Year Honours

  • list. He was previously appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire, also for

  • "services to literature", in 1998. Following this, Pratchett commented in the Ansible SF/fan

  • newsletter, "I suspect the 'services to literature' consisted of refraining from trying to write

  • any" (suggesting the title was more a recognition of success, than an acknowledgement of the

  • fantasy genre). But then added, "Still, I cannot help feeling mightily chuffed about

  • it." Pratchett was the British Book Awards' 'Fantasy

  • and Science Fiction Author of the Year' for 1994.

  • Pratchett won the British Science Fiction Award in 1989 for his novel, Pyramids, and

  • a Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2008 for Making Money.

  • Pratchett has been awarded nine honorary Doctorates; University of Warwick in 1999, the University

  • of Portsmouth in 2001, the University of Bath in 2003, the University of Bristol in 2004,

  • Buckinghamshire New University in 2008, the University of Dublin in 2008, Bradford University

  • in 2009, University of Winchester in 2009 and The Open University in 2013 for his contribution

  • to Public Service. Pratchett won the 2001 Carnegie Medal from

  • the British librarians, recognising The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents as the year's

  • best children's book published in the U.K. Night Watch won the 2003 Prometheus Award

  • for best libertarian novel. In 2003, BBC conducted The Big Read to identify

  • the "Nation's Best-loved Novel" and finally published a ranked list of the "Top 200".

  • Pratchett's highest-ranking novel was Mort, number 65, but he and Charles Dickens were

  • the only authors with five in the Top 100 (four of his were from the Discworld series).

  • He also led all authors with fifteen novels in the Top 200.

  • Three of the four Discworld novels that centre on the "trainee witch" Tiffany Aching won

  • the annual Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book in 2004, 2005 and 2007.

  • In 2005, Going Postal was shortlisted for the Hugo Award for Best Novel; however, Pratchett

  • recused himself, stating that stress over the award would mar his enjoyment of Worldcon.

  • Pratchett received the NESFA Skylark Award in 2009 and the World Fantasy Award for Life

  • Achievement in 2010. In 2011 he won Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library

  • Association, a lifetime honour for "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature".

  • The librarians cited nine Discworld novels published from 1983 to 2004 and observed that

  • "Pratchett’s tales of Discworld have won over generations of teen readers with intelligence,

  • heart, and undeniable wit. Comic adventures that fondly mock the fantasy genre, the Discworld

  • novels expose the hypocrisies of contemporary society in an intricate, ever-expanding universe.

  • With satisfyingly multilayered plots, Pratchett's humor honors the intelligence of the reader.

  • Teens eagerly lose themselves in a universe with no maps."

  • He was made an adjunct Professor in the School of English at Trinity College Dublin in 2010,

  • with a role in postgraduate education in creative writing and popular literature.

  • I Shall Wear Midnight won the 2010 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and

  • Fantasy presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) as a part

  • of the Nebula Award ceremony. Fandom

  • Pratchett's Discworld novels have led to dedicated conventions, the first in Manchester in 1996,

  • then worldwide, often with the author as guest of honour. Publication of a new novel may

  • also be accompanied by an international book signing tour; queues have been known to stretch

  • outside the bookshop and the author has continued to sign books well after the intended finishing

  • time. His fans are not restricted by age or gender, and he receives a large amount of

  • fan mail from them. Pratchett enjoys meeting fans and hearing what they think about his

  • books; he says that since he is well paid for his novels, his fans "are everything to

  • me." Writing

  • Pratchett has said that to write, you must read extensively, both inside and outside

  • your chosen genre and to the point of "overflow". He advises that writing is hard work, and

  • that writers must "make grammar, punctuation and spelling a part of your life." However,

  • Pratchett enjoys writing, regarding its monetary rewards as "an unavoidable consequence", rather

  • than the reason for writing. The fantasy genre

  • Although in the past he has written in the sci-fi and horror genres, Pratchett now focuses

  • almost entirely on fantasy, explaining "it is easier to bend the universe around the

  • story". In the acceptance speech for his Carnegie Medal he said, "Fantasy isn't just about wizards

  • and silly wands. It's about seeing the world from new directions", pointing to J. K. Rowling's

  • Harry Potter novels and J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. In the same speech,

  • he also acknowledged benefits of these works for the genre.

  • He "believes he owes a debt to the science fiction/fantasy genre which he grew up out

  • of" and dislikes the term "magical realism" which is "like a polite way of saying you

  • write fantasy and is more acceptable to certain people ... who, on the whole, do not care

  • that much." He is annoyed that fantasy is "unregarded as a literary form" because it

  • "is the oldest form of fiction" and he is "infuriated" when novels containing science

  • fiction or fantasy ideas are not regarded as part of those genres. He has debated this

  • issue with novelist A. S. Byatt and critic Terry Eagleton, arguing that fantasy is fundamental

  • to the way we understand the world and is therefore an integral aspect of all fiction.

  • On 31 July 2005, Pratchett criticised media coverage of Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling,

  • commenting that certain members of the media seemed to think that "the continued elevation

  • of J. K. Rowling can be achieved only at the expense of other writers". Pratchett has denied

  • claims that this was a swipe at Rowling, and said that he was not making claims of plagiarism,

  • but was pointing out the "shared heritage" of the fantasy genre. Pratchett has also posted

  • on the Harry Potter newsgroup about a media-covered exchange of views with her.

  • Style and major themes Pratchett is known for a distinctive writing

  • style that includes a number of characteristic hallmarks. One example is his use of footnotes,

  • which usually involve a comic departure from the narrative or a commentary on the narrative,

  • and occasionally have footnotes of their own. Pratchett has a tendency to avoid using chapters,

  • arguing in a Book Sense interview that "life does not happen in regular chapters, nor do

  • movies, and Homer did not write in chapters", adding "I'm blessed if I know what function

  • they serve in books for adults." However, there have been exceptions; Going Postal and

  • Making Money and several of his books for younger readers are divided into chapters.

  • Pratchett has offered explanations for his sporadic use of chapters; in the young adult

  • titles, he says that he must use chapters because ' editor screams until does', but

  • otherwise feels that they're an unnecessary 'stopping point' that gets in the way of the

  • narrative. Characters, place names, and titles in Pratchett's

  • books often contain puns, allusions and culture references. Some characters are parodies of

  • well-known characters: for example, Pratchett's character Cohen the Barbarian, also called

  • Ghengiz Cohen, is a parody of Conan the Barbarian and Genghis Khan, and his character Leonard

  • of Quirm is a parody of Leonardo da Vinci. Another parody is in the Discworld Companion,

  • where the article for Unseen University has a Latin motto that when translated reads,

  • "Now you see it, now you don't". Another hallmark of his writing is the use

  • of capitalised dialogue without quotation marks, used to indicate the character of Death

  • communicating telepathically into a character's mind. Other characters or types of characters

  • have similarly distinctive ways of speaking, such as the auditors of reality never having

  • quotation marks, Ankh-Morpork grocers never using punctuation correctly, and golems capitalising

  • each word in everything they say. Pratchett also made up a new colour, octarine, a 'fluorescent

  • greenish-yellow-purple', which is the eighth colour in the Discworld spectrumthe colour

  • of magic. Indeed, the number eight itself is regarded in the Discworld as being a magical

  • number; for example, the eighth son of an eighth son will be a wizard, and his eighth

  • son will be a "sourcerer" (which is one reason why wizards are not allowed to have children).

  • Discworld novels often include a modern innovation and its introduction to the world's medieval

  • setting, such as a public police force (Guards! Guards!), guns (Men at Arms), submarines (Jingo),

  • cinema (Moving Pictures), investigative journalism (The Truth), the postage stamp (Going Postal),

  • modern banking (Making Money), and the steam engine (Raising Steam). The "clacks", the

  • tower-to-tower semaphore system that has sprung up in later novels, is a mechanical optical

  • telegraph (used in Napoleon's Era successfully) before wired electric telegraph chains, with

  • all the change and turmoil that such an advancement implies. The resulting social upheaval driven

  • by these changes serves as the setting for the main story.

  • Influences Pratchett makes no secret of outside influences

  • on his work: they are a major source of his humour. He imports numerous characters from

  • classic literature, popular culture and ancient history, always adding an unexpected twist.

  • Pratchett is a crime novel fan, which is reflected in frequent appearances of the Ankh-Morpork

  • City Watch in the Discworld series. Pratchett was an only child, and his characters are

  • often without siblings. Pratchett explains, "In fiction, only-children are the interesting

  • ones". Pratchett's earliest inspirations were The

  • Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, and the works of Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke.

  • His literary influences have been P.G. Wodehouse, Tom Sharpe, Jerome K. Jerome, Roy Lewis, G.

  • K. Chesterton, and Mark Twain. Publishing history

  • While Pratchett's UK publishing history has remained quite stable, his relationships with

  • international publishers have been turbulent (especially in America). He changed German

  • publishers after an advertisement for Maggi soup appeared in the middle of the German-language

  • version of Pyramids. Works

  • The Discworld series Pratchett began writing the Discworld series

  • in 1983 to "have fun with some of the cliches" and it is a humorous and often satirical sequence

  • of stories set in the colourful fantasy world of Discworld. The series contains various

  • 'story arcs' (or 'sub-series'), and a number of free-standing stories. All are set in an

  • abundance of locations in the same detailed and unified world, such as the Unseen University

  • and 'The Drum/Broken Drum/Mended Drum' public house in the twin city Ankh-Morpork, or places

  • in the various continents, regions and countries on the Disc. Characters and locations reappear

  • throughout the series, variously taking major and minor roles.

  • The Discworld itself is described as a large disc resting on the backs of four giant elephants,

  • all supported by the giant turtle Great A'Tuin as it swims its way through space. The books

  • are essentially in chronological order, and advancements can be seen in the development

  • of the Discworld civilisations, such as the creation of paper money in Ankh-Morpork.

  • The subject of many of the novels in Pratchett's Discworld series is a parody of a real-world

  • subject such as film making, newspaper publishing, rock and roll music, religion, philosophy,

  • Ancient Greece, Egyptian history, the Gulf War, Australia, university politics, trade

  • unions, and the financial world. Pratchett has also included further parody as a feature

  • within the stories, including such subjects as Ingmar Bergman films, numerous fiction,

  • science fiction and fantasy characters, and various bureaucratic and ruling systems.

  • Other Discworld books Pratchett has written or collaborated on a

  • number of Discworld books that are not novels in themselves but serve to accompany the series.

  • The Discworld Companion, written with Stephen Briggs, is an encyclopedic guide to Discworld.

  • The third edition was renamed The New Discworld Companion, and was published in 2003. Latest

  • edition of the companion will be published on 18 October 2012 and will be called Turtle

  • Recall. Briggs also collaborated with Pratchett on a series of fictional Discworld "mapps".

  • The first, The Discworld Mapp (1995), illustrated by Stephen Player, comprises a large, comprehensive

  • map of the Discworld itself with a small booklet that contains short biographies of the Disc's

  • prominent explorers and their discoveries. Three further "mapps", have been released,

  • focusing on particular regions of the Disc: Ankh-Morpork, Lancre, and Death's Domain.

  • Briggs and Pratchett have also released several Discworld diaries and, with Tina Hannan, Nanny

  • Ogg's Cookbook (1999). The design of this cookbook, illustrated by Paul Kidby, was based

  • on the traditional Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, but with humorous recipes.

  • Collections of Discworld-related art have also been released in book form. The Pratchett

  • Portfolio (1996) and The Art of Discworld (2004) are collections of paintings of major

  • Discworld characters by Paul Kidby, with details added by Pratchett on the character's origins.

  • In 2005, Pratchett's first book for very young children was Where's My Cow? Illustrated by

  • Melvyn Grant, this is a realisation of the short story Sam Vimes reads to his child in

  • Thud!. Pratchett resisted mapping the Discworld for

  • quite some time, noting that a firmly designed map restricts narrative possibility (i.e.,

  • with a map, fans will complain if he places a building on the wrong street, but without

  • one, he can adjust the geography to fit the story).

  • Science of Discworld Pratchett has written four Science of Discworld

  • books in collaboration with Professor of mathematics Ian Stewart and reproductive biologist Jack

  • Cohen, both of the University of Warwick: The Science of Discworld (1999), The Science

  • of Discworld II: The Globe (2002), The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch (2005), and

  • The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day (2013).

  • All four books have chapters that alternate between fiction and non-fiction: the fictional

  • chapters are set within the Discworld, where its characters observe, and experiment on,

  • a universe with the same physics as ours. The non-fiction chapters (written by Stewart

  • and Cohen) explain the science behind the fictional events.

  • In 1999, Pratchett appointed both Cohen and Stewart as "Honorary Wizards of the Unseen

  • University" at the same ceremony at which the University of Warwick awarded him an honorary

  • degree. Folklore of Discworld

  • Pratchett has collaborated with the folklorist Dr Jacqueline Simpson on The Folklore of Discworld

  • (2008), a study of the relationship between many of the persons, places and events described

  • in the Discworld books and their counterparts in myths, legends, fairy tales and folk customs

  • on Earth. Other novels and writing

  • Pratchett's first two adult novels, The Dark Side of the Sun (1976) and Strata (1981),

  • were both science-fiction, the latter taking place partly on a disc-shaped world. Subsequent

  • to these, Pratchett has mostly concentrated on his Discworld series and novels for children,

  • with two exceptions: Good Omens (1990), a collaboration with Neil Gaiman (which was

  • nominated for both Locus and World Fantasy Awards in 1991), a humorous story about the

  • Apocalypse set on Earth, and Nation (2008), a book for young adults.

  • After writing Good Omens, Pratchett began to work with Larry Niven on a book that would

  • become Rainbow Mars; Niven eventually completed the book on his own, but states in the afterword

  • that a number of Pratchett's ideas remained in the finished version.

  • Pratchett has also collaborated with British science fiction author Stephen Baxter on a

  • parallel earth series which will consist of at least two novels. The first novel, entitled

  • The Long Earth was released on 21 June 2012. A second novel, The Long War, was released

  • on 18 June 2013. The Long Mars will be published in 2014.

  • In 2012, the first volume of Pratchett's collected short fiction was published under the title

  • A Blink of the Screen. In 2014, a similar collection will be published of Pratchett's

  • non-fiction, titled A Slip of the Keyboard. Children's novels

  • Pratchett's first children's novel was also his first published novel: The Carpet People

  • in 1971, which Pratchett substantially rewrote and re-released in 1992. The next, Truckers

  • (1988), was the first in The Nome Trilogy of novels for young readers, about small gnome-like

  • creatures called "Nomes", and the trilogy continued in Diggers (1990) and Wings (1990).

  • Subsequently, Pratchett wrote the Johnny Maxwell trilogy, about the adventures of a boy called

  • Johnny Maxwell and his friends, comprising Only You Can Save Mankind (1992), Johnny and

  • the Dead (1993) and Johnny and the Bomb (1996). Nation (2008) marked his return to the non-Discworld

  • children's novel, and this was followed in 2012 by Dodger, a children's novel set in

  • Victorian London. On 21 November 2013 Pratchett will release Jack Dodger's Guide to London.

  • On 8 April 2014 it was announced that an anthology of children's stories written by Pratchett,

  • called Dragons at Crumbling Castle, would be released.

  • Collaborations and contributions The Unadulterated Cat (1989) is a humorous

  • book of cat anecdotes written by Pratchett and illustrated by Gray Jolliffe.

  • Digital Dreams, edited by David V Barrett (1990), contains the science fiction short

  • story '"#ifdefDEBUG + "world/enough" + "time". Good Omens, written with Neil Gaiman (1990)

  • After the King: Stories In Honour of J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Martin H. Greenberg (1992)

  • contains "Troll Bridge", a short story featuring Cohen the Barbarian. This story was also published

  • in the compilation The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy (2001, edited by Mike Ashley).

  • Now We Are Sick, written by Neil Gaiman and Stephen Jones (1994), includes the poem called

  • "The Secret Book of the Dead" by Pratchett. The Wizards of Odd, a short-story compilation

  • edited by Peter Haining (1996), includes a Discworld short story called "Theatre of Cruelty".

  • The Flying Sorcerers, another short-story compilation edited by Peter Haining (1997),

  • starts off with a Pratchett story called "Turntables of the Night", featuring Death (albeit not

  • set on Discworld, but in our "reality"). Knights of Madness (1998, edited by Peter

  • Haining) includes a short story called "Hollywood Chickens".

  • Legends, edited by Robert Silverberg (1998), contains a Discworld short story called "The

  • Sea and Little Fishes". The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy, edited

  • by David Pringle (1998), has a foreword by Pratchett.

  • The Leaky Establishment, written by David Langford (1984), has a foreword by Pratchett

  • in later reissues (from 2001). Meditations on Middle-Earth, an anthology

  • of essays on Middle Earth compiled by Karen Haber, contains Pratchett's essay "Cult Classic"

  • (2002) Once More* With Footnotes, edited by Priscilla

  • Olson and Sheila M. Perry (2004), is "an assortment of short stories, articles, introductions,

  • and ephemera" by Pratchett which "have appeared in books, magazines, newspapers, anthologies,

  • and program books, many of which are now hard to find."

  • The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2007 includes an article by Pratchett about the process

  • of writing fantasy. The Long Earth, written with Stephen Baxter

  • (2012) The Long War, written with Stephen Baxter

  • (2013) The Long Mars, written with Stephen Baxter

  • (2014) Adaptations

  • Radio Pratchett has had a number of radio adaptations

  • on BBC Radio 4: The Colour of Magic, Equal Rites (on Woman's Hour), Only You Can Save

  • Mankind, Guards! Guards!, Wyrd Sisters, Mort, and Small Gods have all been dramatised as

  • serials, as was Night Watch in early 2008, and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents

  • as a 90-minute play. The 4-part BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Eric

  • by Robin Brooks again started on 6 March 2013. Guards! Guards! was also adapted as a one-hour

  • audio drama by the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company and performed live at Dragon*Con in 2001.

  • Theatre Johnny and the Dead and 14 Discworld novels

  • have been adapted as plays by Stephen Briggs and published in book form. They were first

  • produced by the Studio Theatre Club in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. They include adaptations of The

  • Truth, Maskerade, Mort, Wyrd Sisters and Guards! Guards! Stage adaptations of Discworld novels

  • have been performed on every continent in the world, including Antarctica.

  • In addition, Lords & Ladies has been adapted for the stage by Irana Brown, and Pyramids

  • was adapted for the stage by Suzi Holyoake in 1999 and had a week-long theatre run in

  • the UK. In 2002, an adaptation of Truckers was produced as a co-production between Harrogate

  • Theatre, the Belgrade Theatre Coventry and Theatre Royal, Bury St. Edmunds. It was adapted

  • by Bob Eaton, and directed by Rob Swain. The play toured to many venues in the UK between

  • 15 March and 29 June 2002. A version of Eric adapted for the stage by

  • Scott Harrison and Lee Harris was produced and performed by The Dreaming Theatre Company

  • in June/July 2003 inside Clifford's Tower, the 700-year-old castle keep in York. It was

  • revived in 2004 in a tour of England along with Robert Rankin's The Antipope.

  • In 2004, a musical adaptation of Only You Can Save Mankind was premiered at the Edinburgh

  • Festival, with music by Leighton James House and book and lyrics by Shaun McKenna.

  • In January 2009, the National Theatre announced that their annual winter family production

  • in 2009 would be a theatrical adaptation of Pratchett's novel Nation. The novel was adapted

  • by playwright Mark Ravenhill and directed by Melly Still. The production premiered at

  • the Olivier Theatre on 24 November, and ran until 28 March 2010. It was broadcast to cinemas

  • around the world on 30 January 2010. Television

  • Truckers was adapted as a stop motion animation series for Thames Television by Cosgrove Hall

  • Films in 1992. Johnny and the Dead was made into a TV serial for Children's ITV on ITV,

  • in 1995. Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music were adapted as animated cartoon series by Cosgrove

  • Hall for Channel 4 in 1996; illustrated screenplays of these were published in 1998 and 1997 respectively.

  • In January 2006, BBC One aired a three-part adaptation of Johnny and the Bomb.

  • A two-part, feature-length version of Hogfather starring David Jason and the voice of Ian

  • Richardson was first aired on Sky One in the United Kingdom in December 2006, and on ION

  • Television in the U.S. in 2007. Pratchett was opposed to live action films about Discworld

  • before because of his negative experience with Hollywood film makers. He changed his

  • opinion when he saw that the director Vadim Jean and producer Rod Brown were very enthusiastic

  • and cooperative. A two-part, feature-length adaptation of The Colour of Magic and its

  • sequel The Light Fantastic aired during Easter 2008 on Sky One. A third adaptation, Going

  • Postal was aired at the end of May 2010. The Sky adaptations are notable also for the author's

  • presence in cameo roles. He is also credited as having "mucked about" with these adaptations.

  • In 2012, Pratchett founded a television production company of his own, Narrativia, which is to

  • hold the rights to his works, and which is in development of a television series, The

  • Watch, based on the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. Feature films

  • Pratchett has held back from Discworld feature films; though the rights to a number of his

  • books have been sold, no films have yet been made. In 2006 it was reported that The Wee

  • Free Men was set to be directed by Sam Raimi, but in 2009 Pratchett said that he had "got

  • back" after reading the proposed screenplay. Director Terry Gilliam has announced in an

  • interview with Empire magazine that he plans to adapt Good Omens but as of 2007 this still

  • needed funding. In 2001, DreamWorks also commissioned an adaptation of Truckers by Andrew Adamson

  • and Joe Stillman but Pratchett believes that it will not be made until after "Shrek 17".

  • In 2008 Danny Boyle revealed that he hoped to direct a Truckers adaptation by Frank Cottrell

  • Boyce. Comic books and graphic novels

  • Four graphic novels of Pratchett's work have been released. The first two, originally published

  • in the US, were adaptations of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic and illustrated

  • by Steven Ross (with Joe Bennett on the latter). The second two, published in the UK, were

  • adaptations of Mort (subtitled A Discworld Big Comic) and Guards! Guards!, both illustrated

  • by Graham Higgins and adapted by Stephen Briggs. The graphic novels of The Colour of Magic

  • and The Light Fantastic were republished by Doubleday on 2 June 2008.

  • Role-playing games GURPS Discworld (Steve Jackson Games, 1998)

  • and GURPS Discworld Also (Steve Jackson Games, 2001) are role-playing source books which

  • were written by Terry Pratchett and Phil Masters, which also offer insights into the workings

  • of the Discworld. The first of these two books was re-released in September 2002 under the

  • name of The Discworld Roleplaying Game, with art by Paul Kidby.

  • Video games The Discworld universe has also been used

  • as a basis for a number of Discworld video games on a range of formats, such as the Sega

  • Saturn, the Sony PlayStation, the Philips CD-i and the 3DO, as well as DOS and Windows-based

  • PCs. The following are the more notable games: The Colour of Magic, the first game based

  • on the series, and so far the only one directly adapted from a Discworld novel. It was released

  • in 1986 for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64.

  • Discworld, an animated "point-and-click" adventure game made by Teeny Weeny Games and Perfect

  • 10 Productions in 1995. Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!?, a sequel

  • to Discworld developed by Perfect Entertainment in 1996. It was subtitled "Mortality Bytes!"

  • in North America. Discworld Noir is the first 3D game based

  • on the Discworld series, and is both a parody of the film noir genre and an example of it.

  • The game was created by Perfect Entertainment and published by GT Interactive for both the

  • PC and PlayStation in 1999. It was released only in Europe and Australia.

  • Internet games The world of Discworld is also featured in

  • a fan created online MUD, multi-user dungeon. This game allows players to play humans in

  • various guilds within the universe that Terry Pratchett has created.

  • Music From The Discworld is a 1994 collection of

  • 14 songs by Dave Greenslade inspired by the Discworld novels, with the author contributing

  • to the production of the record. The album features songs and instrumentals about the

  • books as well as some that appear in the novels, such as "A Wizard's Staff has a Knob on the

  • End". The video of Soul Music used parts of the complete songs that were actually written

  • and performed by Keith Hopwood and Phil Bush; the complete songs were released on an audio

  • CD. Steeleye Span co-operated with Terry Pratchett to write and produce the album Wintersmith,

  • based on the novels featuring the Wee Free Men, and published in October 2013.

  • Works about Pratchett A collection of essays about his writings

  • is compiled in the book Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature, edited by Andrew M. Butler,

  • Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn, published by Science Fiction Foundation in 2000 (ISBN

  • 0903007010). A second, expanded edition was published by Old Earth Books in 2004 (ISBN

  • 188296831X). Andrew M. Butler also wrote the Pocket Essentials Guide to Terry Pratchett

  • published in 2001 (ISBN 1903047390). Writers Uncovered: Terry Pratchett is a biography

  • for young readers by Vic Parker, published by Heinemann Library in 2006 (ISBN 0431906335).

  • Arms

Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett,

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