Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes: The Official Biography

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Similar qualms on Terry’s part affected the price paid up front for Good Omens, his 1990 collaboration with Neil Gaiman. During 1985, Neil had shown Terry a file containing 5,282 words exploring a scenario in which Richmal Crompton’s William Brown had somehow become the Antichrist. Terry loved it, and the concept stayed in his mind. A couple of years later, he rang Neil to ask him if he had done any more work on it. Neil, who had been spending that time thinking about his series The Sandman, for DC Comics, said he hadn’t really given it another thought. Terry said: “Well, I know what happens next, so either you can sell me the idea or we can write it together.” Neil knew straight away which of those options he preferred. As he said: “It was like Michelangelo ringing up and saying, ‘Do you fancy doing a ceiling?’”

And what a job he's done. Terry had begun making notes for an autobiography but sadly did not live long enough to write it. In his absence Rob Wilkins has done an absolutely marvellous job of telling Terry's life story from his childhood when he didn't enjoy reading to the po Why is he so underestimated? The world he created was brilliantly absurd – elephants all the way down – and strangely convincing. I remember arriving by car in Palermo, in Sicily, one day and one of my children saying “we’re on holiday in Ankh-Morpork”. Unlike any other fantasy world, Discworld constantly responds to our own. You’ve only got to look at the titles of the books ( Reaper Man, The Fifth Elephant) – parodies of films. Discworld is the laboratory where Pratchett carried out thought experiments on everything from social class and transport policy to the nature of time and death. Discworld, like Middle-earth, is immersive in a way that tempts people to dress up, draw street maps, tabulate its rules and pretend they live there Terry's life was much like anyone else's, with humble beginnings that drifted into anecdotal rich midlife that didn't so much as crash as it sort of free-wheeled with a few minor stalls. There are no startling revelations or cryptic clues as to how to become as successful as he was. Ordinarily, Terry was a man who worked incredibly hard and whinged sometimes and the holy grail of how to be a writer is simply to write.

A truly wonderful and heartbreaking tale, filled with memories typed by Pratchett himself and lovingly woven with those of writer and ‘best PA in the world’ (read the book), Rob Wilkins. The unique humour and storytelling that carries you along in all of the adventure’s in Prattchett’s fiction is present throughout this biography which is filled with characters and situations as colourful and as rich as those from his books, making this a really enjoyable read. I heard Terry call up: ‘Come on, what have you done with it?’ I went down to him. ‘What have I done with what?’ He was staring directly down at his keyboard. ‘The “S”. You’ve taken the “S”. Where is it?’ I was mystified. I went and stood beside him and looked. The letter S was on the keyboard, in between the letters A and D, as usual. I leaned forward and punched it. He looked at me and held my gaze. There was anxiety in his eyes. How frightening that must have been for him—his known world suddenly and inexplicably not making sense, utterly disorienting signals emanating from his computer keyboard, of all the familiar places.“ Look after Lyn, please. Have those fine pieces of jewellery cast to my design and give them with my love. Choose a gift every Christmas and birthday. Send flowers. Have a big dinner each year, more if necessary or if a celebration is required, and raise a brandy to my memory and to happy days.

I’ve read almost all of his books (no, I still haven’t been able to read the last Discworld book — and after reading about how it was written, in the last months of Terry being Terry, I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to do that). I can quote him for hours and hours at length. I’ve seen every screen adaptation of his works. And yet I still didn’t know much about the person my literary hero was until I read this book. Our servers are getting hit pretty hard right now. To continue shopping, enter the characters as they are shown Most of all, though, it was as lovely as it was sometimes surprising to take such an intimate look at Sir Terry and his loved ones, how they experienced certain milestones and forged a good life together. Surprising because one has a certain idea about a person that is never complete and the truth is sometimes, well, surprising. *lol* Next, I marveled at the Ode to Sir Terry Pratchett from Sir David Jason, which as just lovely and included a closing line that was reminiscent of how the Two Ronnies would close each episode of their comedy television show.

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I loved learning about the author's days in school - thereby getting quite the history lesson, too - and of his struggles before he became an avid reader. Equally, I was delighted to meet all the other family members and discovering quite a number of people who seemed intrinsically familiar ... because they definitely were the inspiration for certain people on Discworld! :D However, his years spent as a journalist of one sort or another and the people he thereby met was quite astonishing as well. Wilkins lays out stories where Pratchett, having found success in his writing, negotiates high-figure advances down out of concern that a particular book might not earn it out fast enough. Pratchett tries to have his books pulled from contention from awards because he hated being shortlisted if he wasn’t going to win. There are lots of facts, many culled from the unfinished autobiography that Pratchett was dictating during his last years, plus copious anecdotes that the omnipresent PA recalled. Given the nature of their professional relationship and friendship, there is also a small element of memoir on Wilkins part too. As promised in the subtitle of the book, there are copious footnotes. These are not academic references, but more like those of the Discworld novels—further comments of the author on the event in the text. Indeed there is no bibliography, so if you are in search of analysis you will be disappointed. Starts slow, and somewhat off for me, as I had to adjust my image of Terry Pratchett with the author's extensive experience of same ;) One thing's for sure, Wilkins is not sugar-coating things - he respects - and knew - Pratchett well enough not to even hint at lionizing him, and for that he has my respect. Does it make the book harder to read? Yep, absolutely. But in the end, it's also absolutely worth it. Drawing on his own extensive memories, along with those of Terry's family, friends, fans and colleagues, Rob recounts Terry's extraordinary story - from his early childhood to the literary phenomenon that his Discworld series became; and how he met and coped with the challenges that 'The Embuggerance' of Alzheimer's brought with it.