Pratchett's first novel,The Carpet People, was published in 1971. The firstDiscworld novel,The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, after which Pratchett wrote an average of two books a year. The finalDiscworld novel,The Shepherd's Crown, was published in August 2015, five months after his death.
In December 2007 Pratchett announced that he had been diagnosed withearly-onset Alzheimer's disease. He later made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust (nowAlzheimer's Research UK, ARUK), filmed three television programmes chronicling his experiences with the condition for theBBC, and became a patron of ARUK. Pratchett died on 12 March 2015, at the age of 66.
Pratchett was born on 28 April 1948 inBeaconsfield inBuckinghamshire, England, the only child of David (1921–2006), a mechanic, and Eileen Pratchett (1922–2010), a secretary, ofHay-on-Wye.[1] His maternal grandparents came from Ireland.[2] Pratchett attended Holtspur School, where he was bullied for hisspeech impediments. He was disliked by thehead teacher, who, Pratchett said, thought "he could tell how successful you were going to be in later life by how well you could read or write at the age of six".[3]
Pratchett's family moved toBridgwater, Somerset, briefly in 1957.[4] He passed hiseleven plus exam in 1958, earning a place atHigh Wycombe Technical High School,[a][6] where he was a key member of the debating society[7][8] and wrote stories for the school magazine.[7][9] Pratchett described himself as a "non-descript" student and,[10] in hisWho's Who entry, credited his education to the Beaconsfield Public Library.[4][11]
Pratchett's early interests includedastronomy. He collectedBrooke Bond tea cards about space, owned a telescope and wanted to be an astronomer, but lacked the necessary mathematical skills.[5] He developed an interest in science fiction and attendedscience fiction conventions from about 1963–1964, but stopped a few years later when he got his first job as a trainee journalist at the local paper.[12] His early reading included the works ofH. G. Wells,Arthur Conan Doyle, and "every book you really ought to read", which he later regarded as "getting an education".[13]
Pratchett published his first short story, "Business Rivals", in the High Wycombe Technical School's magazine in 1962. It is the tale of a man named Crucible who finds the Devil in his flat in a cloud of sulphurous smoke.[14] "The Hades Business" was published in the school magazine when he was 13, and published commercially when he was 15.[15]
Pratchett earned fiveO-levels and startedA-level courses in Art, English and History.[16] His initial career choice was journalism and he left school at 17, in 1965, to start an apprenticeship with Arthur Church, the editor of theBucks Free Press. In this position he wrote, among other things, more than 80 stories for theChildren's Circle section under the name Uncle Jim. Two of the stories contain characters found in his novelThe Carpet People (1971).[17] While onday release from his apprenticeship, Pratchett finished his A-Level in English and took theNational Council for the Training of Journalists proficiency course.[7][18]
In 1968 Pratchett interviewedPeter Bander van Duren, co-director of a small publishing company, Colin Smythe Ltd. Pratchett mentioned that he had written a manuscript,The Carpet People.[19][20] Colin Smythe Ltd published the book in 1971, with illustrations by Pratchett.[21] It received strong, although few, reviews and was followed by the science fiction novelsThe Dark Side of the Sun (1976) andStrata (1981).[22] In the 1970s and 1980s, Pratchett published stories in a regional newspaper under the pseudonym Patrick Kearns.[23]
After various positions in journalism, in 1979 Pratchett became press officer for the South West Region of theCentral Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) in an area that contained threenuclear power stations.[b] He later joked that he had demonstrated "impeccable timing" by making this career change so soon after theThree Mile Island nuclear accident inPennsylvania, US, and said he would "write a book about his experiences if he thought anyone would actually believe them".[25][26]
The firstDiscworld novel,The Colour of Magic, was published in hardback by Colin Smythe Ltd in 1983. Pratchett gave up working for the CEGB to make his living through writing in 1987, after finishing the fourthDiscworld novel,Mort. His sales increased quickly and many of his books occupied top places on bestseller lists; he was the UK's bestselling author of the 1990s.[27] According toThe Times, Pratchett was the top-selling and highest earning UK author in 1996.[18] Some of his books have been published byDoubleday, another Transworld imprint.[28] In the United States, where his books are published byHarperCollins, Pratchett had poorer sales, marketing and distribution until 2005, whenThud! reached theNew York Times bestseller list.[29]
According to theBookseller's Pocket Yearbook (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 behindJ. K. Rowling (6% and 5.6%, respectively), while in the paperback sales list Pratchett came 5th with 1.2% and 1.3% by value (behindJames Patterson (1.9% and 1.7%),Alexander McCall Smith,John Grisham andJ. R. R. Tolkien).[30] He has UK sales of more than 2.5 million copies a year.[31] His 2011Discworld novelSnuff became the third-fastest-selling hardback adult-readership novel since records began in the UK, selling 55,000 copies in the first three days.[32] As of 2023, Pratchett's works have sold more than 100 million copies in 43 languages.[33]
Pratchett married Lyn Purves at the Congregational Church,Gerrards Cross, on 5 October 1968.[18] They moved toRowberrow, Somerset, in 1970. Their daughterRhianna Pratchett, also a writer, was born there in 1976. In 1993 the family moved toBroad Chalke, a village west ofSalisbury, Wiltshire.[34]
Pratchett was the patron of the Friends of High Wycombe Library.[35] In 2013 he gave a talk at Beaconsfield Library, which he had visited as a child, and donated the income from the event to it. He also visited his former school to speak to the students.[14]
Pratchett often wore large black hats, in a style described as "more that of urban cowboy than city gent".[36] Concern for the future of civilisation prompted him to install five kilowatts ofphotovoltaic cells (forsolar energy) at his house in 2007.[37]
Pratchett had an observatory built in his back garden[12] and was a keen astronomer from childhood.[5] He made a 2005 appearance on the BBC programmeThe Sky at Night[38] and appeared on the 50th anniversary of the show in 2007.[39] He travelled on a cruise ship fromTaiwan to watch the2009 solar eclipse.[40]
Pratchett started to use computers for writing as soon as they were available to him. His first computer was aZX81; the first computer he used properly for writing was anAmstrad CPC 464, later replaced by anIBM PC compatible. Pratchett was one of the first authors to routinely use the Internet to communicate with fans, and was a contributor to theUsenet newsgroup alt.fan.pratchett from 1992.[41] However, he did not consider the Internet a hobby, just another "thing to use".[26] He had many computers in his house,[26] with a bank of six monitors to ease writing.[42][43] When he travelled, he always took a portable computer, originally a 1992Olivetti Quaderno,[44] with him to write.[26]
In a 1995 interview withMicrosoft co-founderBill Gates, Pratchett expressed concern about the potential spread ofmisinformation online. He felt that there was a "kind of parity of esteem of information" on the internet, and gave the example ofHolocaust denial being presented on the same terms aspeer-reviewed research, with no easy way to gauge reliability. Gates disagreed, saying that online authorities would index and check facts and sources in a much more sophisticated way than in print. The interview was rediscovered in 2019, and seen by Pratchett's biographer as prescient offake news.[45]
Pratchett was an avidvideo game player, and collaborated in the creation of a number of game adaptations of his books. He favoured games that are "intelligent and have some depth", citingHalf-Life 2 (2004) and fan missions forThief as examples.[46][47] The red army inInteresting Times prompted comparisons to the 1991 puzzle gameLemmings. When asked about this connection, Pratchett said: "Merely because the red army can fight, dig, march and climb and is controlled by little icons? Can't imagine how anyone thought that ... Not only did I wipeLemmings from my hard disk, I overwrote it so I couldn't get it back."[48] He describedThe Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006) as his favourite video game, saying that he used many of its non-combat-oriented fan-mademods,[49] and contributed to the development of at least one popular fan-made mod.[50]
Pratchett had a fascination withnatural history that he referred to many times, and he owned a greenhouse full ofcarnivorous plants.[51] He described them in the biographical notes on the dust jackets of some of his books, and elsewhere,[52] as "not as interesting as people think".[53] ByCarpe Jugulum the account had become that "he used to grow carnivorous plants, but now they've taken over the greenhouse and he avoids going in".[54]
In 1995, afossil of asea-turtle from theEocene epoch of New Zealand was namedPsephophorus terrypratchetti in his honour by the palaeontologist Richard Köhler (his Discworld being a flat planet balanced on the backs of four elephants which in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle).[55]
Pratchett was a trustee for the Orangutan Foundation[58] but was pessimistic about the future oforangutans.[37] His activities included visitingBorneo with aChannel 4 film crew to make an episode ofJungle Quest in 1995, seeing orangutans in their natural habitat.[59] Following Pratchett's lead, fan events such as the Discworld Conventions have adopted Orangutan Foundation as their nominated charity, which has been acknowledged by the foundation.[60] One of Pratchett's most popular fictional characters,the Librarian, 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.
Pratchett wrote that he read theOld Testament as a child and "was horrified", but liked theNew Testament and thought that Jesus "had a lot of good things to say ... But I could never see the two testaments as one coherent narrative".[61] He then readOn the Origin of Species, which "all made perfect sense ... Evolution was far more thrilling to me than the biblical account."[61] He said that he had never disliked religion and thought it had a purpose inhuman evolution.[61] In an interview Pratchett cites a quotation from the protagonist in his novelNation, "It is better to build a seismograph than to worship the volcano", a statement Pratchett said he agreed with.[61]
Pratchett toldThe Times in 2008: "I believe in the same God thatEinstein did ... And 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."[62] In an interview onFront Row he described an experience of hearing his dead father's voice and feeling a sense of peace.[65] Commentators took these statements to mean that Pratchett had become religious, but Pratchett responded in an article published in theDaily Mail in which he denied that he had found God, and clarified that he believed the voice had come from a memory of his father and a sense of personal elation.[61]
In August 2007, Pratchett was misdiagnosed as having had a minor stroke a few years before, which doctors believed had damaged the right side of his brain.[36][66][67] In December 2007, he announced that he had been diagnosed withearly-onset Alzheimer's disease, which had been responsible for the "stroke".[67][68] He had a rare form ofposterior cortical atrophy (PCA),[36][66] a disease in which areas at the back of the brain begin to shrink and shrivel.[69]
Describing the diagnosis 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".[70] He stated he felt he had time for "at least a few more books yet", and added that while he understood the impulse to ask "is there anything I can do?", in this case he would only entertain such offers from "very high-end experts in brain chemistry".[70] Discussing his diagnosis at theBath Literature Festival in early 2008, Pratchett revealed that by then he found it too difficult to write dedications when signing books.[71] In his later years Pratchett wrote by dictating to his assistant, Rob Wilkins, or by usingspeech-recognition software.[72]
In March 2008, Pratchett announced he was donating £494,000 (about US$1,000,000) to theAlzheimer's Research Trust (later called Alzheimer's Research UK), and that he was shocked "to find out that funding for Alzheimer's research is just 3% of that to find cancer cures".[69][73][74] He said: "I am, along with many others, scrabbling to stay ahead long enough to be there when the cure comes along."[69]
In April 2008, Pratchett worked with theBBC to make a two-part documentary series about his illness,Terry Pratchett: Living With Alzheimer's.[75] The first part was broadcast onBBC Two on 4 February 2009, drawing 2.6 million viewers and a 10.4% audience share.[76] The second, broadcast on 11 February 2009, drew 1.72 million viewers and a 6.8% audience share.[77] The documentary won aBAFTA award in the Factual Series category.[78]
On 26 November 2008, Pratchett met Prime MinisterGordon Brown and asked for an increase in dementia-research funding.[79] Pratchett tested a prototype device to address his condition.[80][81] The ability of the device to alter the course of the illness has been met with scepticism from Alzheimer's researchers.[82]
In an article published in 2009 Pratchett stated that he wished to die byassisted suicide (a term he disliked) before his disease progressed to a critical point.[83] He later said that he felt "it should be possible for someone stricken with a serious and ultimately fatal illness to choose to die peacefully with medical help, rather than suffer".[84] Pratchett was selected to give the 2010 BBCRichard Dimbleby Lecture,[85]Shaking Hands With Death, broadcast on 1 February 2010.[86] Pratchett introduced his lecture on the topic of assisted death (he preferred this to the term "assisted suicide"), but the main text was read by his friendTony Robinson because his condition made it difficult for him to read.[87] In June 2011, Pratchett presented a BBC television documentary,Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die, about assisted suicide. It won the Best Documentary award at theScottish BAFTAs in November 2011.[88][89][90]
In September 2012, Pratchett told an interviewer: "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 same interview he said that the cognitive part of his mind was "untouched" and his symptoms were physical (normal for PCA).[91] However, in July 2014 he cancelled his appearance at the biennialInternational Discworld Convention, citing his condition and "other age-related ailments".[92]
Pratchett died at his home from complications of Alzheimer's disease on the morning of 12 March 2015. He was 66 years old.[93][94]The Telegraph reported an unidentified source as saying that, despite his previous discussion of assisted suicide, his death had been natural.[95] After Pratchett's death, his assistant, Rob Wilkins, wrote from the official Terry Pratchett Twitter account:
AT LAST,SIRTERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.
Terry took Death's arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.
Public figures who paid tribute included Prime MinisterDavid Cameron, the comedianRicky Gervais,[97] and the authorsUrsula K. Le Guin,Terry Brooks,Margaret Atwood,George R. R. Martin andNeil Gaiman.[98][99] Pratchett was memorialised in graffiti in East London.[100] The video game companiesFrontier Developments[101] andValve added elements to their games named after him.[102] Users of the social news siteReddit organised a tribute by which anHTTP header, "X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett", was added to websites' responses, a reference to theDiscworld novelGoing Postal, in which "the clacks" (asemaphore system, used asDiscworld's equivalent to atelegraph) are programmed to repeat the name of its creator's deceased son; the sentiment in the novel is that no one is ever forgotten as long as their name is still spoken.[103] A June 2015 web server survey reported that approximately 84,000 websites had been configured with the header.[104] Pratchett'shumanist funeral service was held inSalisbury on 25 March 2015.[105]
In 2015, Pratchett's estate announced an endowment in perpetuity to theUniversity of South Australia.[106] The Sir Terry Pratchett Memorial Scholarship supports a Masters scholarship at the university's Hawke Research Institute.[107] In 2023, several stories published in a regional newspaper between 1970 and 1975 under the pen name Patrick Kearns were discovered to have been authored by Pratchett. They were published along with a handful of other uncollected stories asA Stroke of the Pen: The Lost Stories in October 2023.[23]
Pratchett received aknighthood for "services to literature" in the2009 UK New Year Honours list.[108][109][110] He was previously appointedOfficer of the Order of the British Empire, also for "services to literature", in 1998. He formally received theaccolade at Buckingham Palace on 18 February 2009.[111] Pratchett commented in theAnsible science fiction/fan newsletter, "I suspect the 'services to literature' consisted of refraining from trying to write any", but added, "Still, I cannot help feeling mightily chuffed about it."[112] On 31 December 2008, it was announced that Pratchett would beknighted (as aKnight Bachelor) in the Queen's 2009 New Year Honours.[108][113] 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."[114] In 2010, Pratchett created his own sword from deposits of iron he had found in a field near his home as he believed a knight should have a sword.[115]
In 2016 the SFWA named Pratchett the recipient ofKate Wilhelm Solstice Award, given for "significant impact on the science fiction or fantasy landscape".[141] He received theNESFASkylark Award in 2009[142] and theWorld Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2010.[143] In 2011 he wonMargaret A. Edwards Award from theAmerican Library Association, a lifetime honour for "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature".[144][145] The librarians cited nineDiscworld 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."[144] In 2003 theBBC conductedThe 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 wasMort, number 65, but he andCharles Dickens were the only authors with five in the Top 100 (four of his were from theDiscworld series). He also led all authors with fifteen novels in the Top 200.[146]
An asteroid (127005 Pratchett) is named after Pratchett.[147] In 2013 Pratchett was named Humanist of the Year by theBritish Humanist Association for his campaign to fund research into Alzheimers, his contribution to theright to die public debate and his Humanist values.[148] Pratchett'sDiscworld novels have led to dedicated conventions, the first in Manchester in 1996,[149] then worldwide,[150] often with the author as guest of honour.[151] Publication of a new novel was sometimes accompanied by an international book-signing tour;[152] queues were known to stretch outside the bookshop as he continued to sign books well after the intended finishing time. His fans were not restricted by age or gender, and he received a large amount of fan mail from them.[149] Pratchett enjoyed meeting fans and hearing what they think about his books, saying that since he was well paid for his novels, his fans were "everything" to him.[153]
In March 2017, Beaconsfield Town Council commissioned a commemorative plaque dedicated to Pratchett for Beaconsfield Library.[154][155]
In 2010, Pratchett was granted his owncoat of arms following his knighthood.[115] The arms were designed byHubert Chesshyre and granted by Letters Patent ofGarter and Clarenceux Kings of Arms.[156][157] The owl is amorepork, which taken together with theankh is a reference to the city ofAnkh-Morpork. The image of a morpork holding an ankh appears in the fictional Ankh-Morpork City Arms. The motto "Noli Timere Messorem" is a corrected version of thedog Latin "Non Timetis Messor", the motto of Death's son-in-law and former apprentice, Mort of Sto Helit[158] and his heirs. The phrase is a reference to the song "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" byBlue Öyster Cult.[159]
Upon a Helm with a Wreath Argent and Sable on Water Barry wavy Sable Argent and Sable an Owl affronty wings displayed and inverted Or supporting thereby two closed Books erect Gules.[156]
Escutcheon
Sable an ankh between four Roundels in saltire each issuing Argent.[156]
The owl is amorepork, which taken together with theankh is a reference to the city ofAnkh-Morpork. The image of a morpork holding an ankh appears in the fictional Ankh-Morpork City Arms. The motto "Noli Timere Messorem" is a corrected version of thedog Latin "Non Timetis Messor", the motto of Death's son-in-law and former apprentice, Mort of Sto Helit[158] and his heirs. The phrase is a reference to the song "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" byBlue Öyster Cult.[159]
Pratchett said that to write, one must read extensively, both inside and outside one’s chosen genre[160] and to the point of "overflow".[26] He advised that writing is hard work, and that writers must "make grammar, punctuation and spelling a part of your life".[26] However, Pratchett enjoyed writing, regarding its monetary rewards as "an unavoidable consequence" rather than the reason for writing.[161]
Although during his early career he wrote for the science fiction and horror genres, Pratchett later focused almost entirely on fantasy, and said: "It is easier to bend the universe around the story."[162] 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 theHarry Potter novels andThe Lord of the Rings. In the same speech, he acknowledged benefits of these works for the genre.[163]
Pratchett believed he owed "a debt to the science fiction/fantasy genre which he grew up out of" and disliked the term "magical realism", which, he said, is "like a polite way of saying you write fantasy and is more acceptable to certain people".[164] He expressed annoyance that fantasy is "unregarded as a literary form", arguing that it "is the oldest form of fiction";[153] he said he was infuriated when novels containing science fiction or fantasy ideas were not regarded as part of those genres.[160] He debated this issue with novelistA. S. Byatt and criticTerry Eagleton, arguing that fantasy is fundamental to the way we understand the world and therefore an integral aspect of all fiction.[165]
Pratchett's earliestDiscworld novels were written largely to parody classic sword-and-sorcery fiction (and occasionally science fiction);[166] as the series progressed, Pratchett dispensed with parody almost entirely, and theDiscworld series evolved into straightforward (though still comedic) satire.[167]
Pratchett had a tendency to avoid using chapters, arguing in aBook Sense interview that "life does not happen in regular chapters, nor do movies, andHomer did not write in chapters", adding "I'm blessed if I know what function they serve in books for adults".[168] However, there were exceptions;Going Postal andMaking Money and several of his books for younger readers are divided into chapters.[169] Pratchett said that he used chapters in the young adult novels because "[his] editor screams until [he] does", but otherwise felt that they were an unnecessary "stopping point" that got in the way of the narrative.[citation needed]
Characters, place names, and titles in Pratchett's books often contain puns, allusions and cultural references.[170][171] Some characters are parodies of well-known characters: for example, Pratchett's characterCohen the Barbarian, also called Ghengiz Cohen, is a parody ofConan the Barbarian andGenghis Khan, and his character Leonard of Quirm is a parody ofLeonardo da Vinci.[172][173]
Another feature of his writing is the use of dialogue in small capitals, without quotation marks, for utterances by the character Death.
Pratchett was anonly child, and his characters are often without siblings. Pratchett explained, "In fiction only children are the interesting ones."[174]
Discworld novels often included a modern innovation and its introduction to the world'smedieval setting, such as a public police force (Guards! Guards!), guns (Men at Arms), 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-towersemaphore system that sprang up in later novels, is a mechanical optical telegraph (as created by theChappe brothers and employed during theFrench Revolution) 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.
TheDiscworld series consists of 41 novels and a variety of supporting material. Pratchett began writing theDiscworld series in order to "have fun with some of the cliches".[12] The Discworld is a large disc resting on the backs of four giant elephants, all supported by the giant turtleGreat A'Tuin as it swims its way through space. The books were published essentially in chronological order,[169] and advancements can be seen in the development of the Discworld civilisations, such as the creation of paper money in Ankh-Morpork.[168]
All four books have chapters that alternate between fiction and non-fiction: the fictional chapters are set within theDiscworld universe, wherecharacters 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 theUniversity of Warwick awarded him an honorary degree.[116]
Pratchett collaborated with the folklorist DrJacqueline Simpson onThe Folklore of Discworld (2008), a study of the relationship between many of the persons, places and events described in theDiscworld books and their counterparts in myths, legends, fairy tales and folk customs on Earth.
Pratchett's first two adult novels,The Dark Side of the Sun (1976) andStrata (1981), were both science fiction, the latter taking place partly on a disc-shaped world. Subsequent to these, Pratchett mostly concentrated on hisDiscworld series and novels for children, with two exceptions:Good Omens (1990), a collaboration withNeil Gaiman (which was nominated for both Locus and World Fantasy Awards in 1991[180]), a humorous story about the Apocalypse set on Earth, andNation (2008), a book for young adults.
After writingGood Omens Pratchett brainstormed withLarry Niven on a story that became the short novel "Rainbow Mars". Niven eventually completed the story on his own, but he states in the afterword that a number of Pratchett's ideas remained in the finished version.[181] Pratchett also collaborated with the British science fiction authorStephen Baxter on a parallel Earth series.[182][183] The first novel, entitledThe Long Earth was published on 21 June 2012. A second novel,The Long War, was released on 18 June 2013.[184]The Long Mars was published in 2014. The fourth book in the series,The Long Utopia, was published in June 2015, and the fifth,The Long Cosmos, in June 2016.
In 2012, the first volume of Pratchett's collected short fiction was published under the titleA Blink of the Screen. In 2014 a similar collection was published of Pratchett's non-fiction, entitledA Slip of the Keyboard.[185]
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 inThe Nome Trilogy of novels for young readers (also known asThe Bromeliad Trilogy), about smallgnome-like creatures called "Nomes", and the trilogy continued inDiggers (1990) andWings (1990). Subsequently, Pratchett wrote theJohnny Maxwell trilogy, about the adventures of a boy called Johnny Maxwell and his friends, comprisingOnly You Can Save Mankind (1992),Johnny and the Dead (1993) andJohnny and the Bomb (1996).Nation (2008) marked his return to the non-Discworld children's novel, and this was followed in 2012 byDodger, a children's novel set in Victorian London.[188] On 21 November 2013Doubleday Children's released Pratchett'sJack Dodger's Guide to London.[189]
In 2001, he wroteThe Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, his firstDiscworld book marketed for children.[132]
Pratchett also wrote a five-book children's series featuring a trainee witch,Tiffany Aching, and taking place onDiscworld, beginning withThe Wee Free Men in 2003.
In September 2014, a collection of children's stories,Dragons at Crumbling Castle, written by Pratchett, and illustrated by Mark Beech, was published. This was followed by another collection,The Witch's Vacuum Cleaner, also illustrated by Mark Beech, in 2016. A third volume,Father Christmas's Fake Beard, was released in 2017. A fourth collection,The Time-travelling Caveman, was released in September 2020.[190] A final collection,A Stroke of the Pen: The Lost Stories, was published in October 2023, collecting 20 stories written by Pratchett for newspapers in the 1970s and 80s under pseudonyms such as "Patrick Kearns" which had not previously been attributed to Pratchett.[191]
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".[192] These include the short stories "The Sea and Little Fishes", "Troll Bridge", "The Hades Business", "Final Reward", "Hollywood Chickens", "Turntables of the Night", "Once and Future", and "#ifdef DEBUG + 'world/enough' + 'time'", as well as nonfiction articles.
Pratchett's daughter, the writer Rhianna Pratchett, is the custodian of theDiscworld franchise. She said that she had no plans to publish her father's unfinished work or continue theDiscworld series.[195] Pratchett told Neil Gaiman that anything that he had been working on at the time of his death should be destroyed by asteamroller. On 25 August 2017 his former assistant Rob Wilkins fulfilled this wish by arranging for Pratchett's hard drive to be crushed under a steamroller at theGreat Dorset Steam Fair.[196]
According to Wilkins, Pratchett left "an awful lot" of unfinished writing, "10 titles I know of and fragments from many other bits and pieces".[197] Pratchett had mentioned two new texts,Scouting for Trolls[198] and aDiscworld novel following a new character.[199] The notes left behind outline ideas about "how the old folk of the Twilight Canyons solve the mystery of a missing treasure and defeat the rise of a Dark Lord despite their failing memories"; "the secret of the crystal cave and the carnivorous plants in the Dark Incontinent", about Constable Feeney of the Watch, first introduced inSnuff, involving how he "solves a whodunnit among the congenitally decent and honest goblins"; and a second book about Amazing Maurice fromThe Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents.[200]
A collection of essays about Pratchett's writings is compiled in the bookTerry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature, edited byAndrew M. Butler,Edward James andFarah Mendlesohn, published by Science Fiction Foundation in 2000. A second, expanded edition was published by Old Earth Books in 2004. Andrew M. Butler wrote thePocket Essentials Guide to Terry Pratchett published in 2001.Writers Uncovered: Terry Pratchett is a biography for young readers by Vic Parker, published byHeinemann Library in 2006.
ABBCdocudrama based on Pratchett's life,Terry Pratchett: Back In Black, was broadcast in February 2017, starringPaul Kaye as Pratchett.Neil Gaiman was involved with the project which used Pratchett's own words. Pratchett's assistant, Rob Wilkins, said that Pratchett was working on this documentary before he died. According to the BBC, finishing it would "show the author was still having the last laugh".[204]
The English author, critic and performer Marc Burrows wrote an unofficial biography,The Magic of Terry Pratchett, published by Pen & Sword on 6 July 2020.[205] Though it was not endorsed by the Pratchett estate, prior to its publication they did wish Burrows "all the best" regarding the book through the official Pratchett Twitter account.[206] It received generally favourable reviews and won the 2021Locus Award for Non-Fiction.[207]
In 2022, Wilkins wrote the official biography,Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes.[208] The biography was well received.[c] InThe Daily Telegraph, Tristram Fane Saunders wrote that it "spins magic from mundanity in precisely the way Pratchett himself did".[209] However, in a review for theIrish Independent, Kevin Power called it more a collection of fan notes than a serious biography.[212]
In April 2023, "Entering Discworld Population", an episode of the podcastImaginary Worlds, was released to mark the 75th anniversary of Pratchett's birth.[213] It discussed four of Pratchett's recurring fiction characters as representative of his underlying philosophy.
^Pratchett gave his eleven plus exam in 1958 according to biographer Marc Burrows,[5] and in 1959 according to Craig Cabell.[4]
^Burrows states that Pratchett joined the CEGB in 1979 and oversaw three nuclear stations,[24] but according to Cabell, he started work in 1980 and the number of stations may have been either three or four.[25]
^J. R. Hughes U6A, "The Senior Debating Society 1965", inCygnet, Wycombe Technical High School Magazine, May 1966, Vol. 2, no. 1, p. [20].
^Stories in theTechnical Cygnet: "Business Rivals" (later to be revised and published under the title "The Hades Business"), 1: 8, December 1962, pp. 18–29; "Look for the Little – Dragon?" and "The Searcher" 1: 9, March 1964, pp. 28–29; "Solution" 1: 10, July 1964, p. 25; and "The Picture" 1:11, May 1965, p. 12.
^Wilkins, Rob (29 September 2022). "14. Rubber Gloves, TV Snobs and an Olivetti on the Line at Waterloo".Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes. Transworld (published 2022).ISBN978-1-473-56894-5.
James, Edward (2012). "Tolkien, Lewis and the explosion of genre fantasy". In James, Edward;Mendlesohn, Farah (eds.).The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature. Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-42959-7.
Out of the shadows : Four videos in which Terry Pratchett reveals what it was like to be diagnosed with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), a rare variant of Alzheimer's disease.
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