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
Richard Köhler. 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 spectrum—the 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).
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