It’s a sad day for science fiction and fantasy fans all around the world (or across the world if you still believe the world is flat and rides upon a giant turtle) as we heard that Terry Pratchett has died at the age of 66. I first got into the discworld books when I was a teenager and even at the ripe old age of nearly 40 I still love his books. There’s been many a time when I have got odd looks from people while I giggle away while reading one of his books. I loved all his different characters and the silliness of everything on the discworld. My favourite discworld books are ones about the City of Ankh-Morpork City Watch. Sam Vimes and his motley crew of watchmen stat off as a ragtag bunch until Carrot turns up and we then see Sam all happily married to a duchess and then we watch as the city watch grows bigger and bolder and Sam climb up the social ladder becoming a knight of the city.
Terry Pratchett started his writing career at the age of 13 when he published his first short story “The Hades Business” for his school magazine. At the age of 17 while working for the Bucks free press he wrote short stories some that would evolve into the book “The carpet people” which he published in 1971. After that he wrote two science fiction novels “Strata” and “The dark side of the sun”. The first discworld novel “The colour of magic” was published in 1980 then after that there was no stopping him! By his fourth book his sales saw him in the top ten of the best-selling book list and by 1996 he was the best-selling and highest earning British author. Terry had a number of interests and hobbies that ended up in his books. Terry loved his computers and his experiences showed up in his books as Hex. Another interest of his was natural history, he even had a sea turtle fossil named after him. In 2007 after being misdiagnosed as having a stroke Terry found out he had a rare form of early on-set Alzheimer’s disease. He helped highlight the condition and even donated a large sum of money to the Alzheimer’s charity. He carried on writing books using speech assisted technology as well as dictation but yesterday the sad news came out that Sir Terry Pratchett had died due to complications due to his Alzheimer’s. The last tweet on his twitter account posted by his assistant read
“AT LAST, SIR TERRY, 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.
“The End.”
A very sad end to an author who changed the fantasy genre and brighten up the lives of so many my self included. Sir Terry leaves behind his wife Lyn and his daughter Rhianna. Fair well Sir Terry what ever after life you have ended up in is sure going to be a brighter and funnier place with you in it.
Pratchett facts
Donated $1,000,000 to the Alzheimer’s research trust
A fossil sea-turtle from the Eocene epoch was name Psephophorus terrypratchett in honour of Sir Terry Pratchett
In 2009 he received a knighthood for services to literature. He used this to impress his American friends.
Johnny and the dead and 14 discworld novels have been adapted as plays by Stephen Briggs.
In 2009 Sir Terry made his own sword, first digging up iron ore from a field 10 miles away and using natural resources and even adding some thunderbolt iron to it.
Even has an asteroid named after him 127005Pratchett
Was a patron to the friends of High Wycombe library
So Sir Terry Pratchett May the force be with you always!!!!
The Library Jedi
Library Jedi 