Terry Pratchett

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	Photo: © Robin Matthews

Biography

Terry Pratchett was born in 1948 in Beaconsfield, Bucks, and decided to become a journalist after his first short story, 'The Hades Business', was published in Science Fantasy magazine when he was fifteen years old. His first job was on the Bucks Free Press and he went on to work for various newspapers before becoming a publicity officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board in 1980. He became a full-time writer in 1987.

His first novel, The Carpet People (1971), a humorous fantasy, was followed by The Dark Side of the Sun (1976) and Strata (1981). 1983 saw the publication of The Colour of Magic, which became the first in a long series of Discworld novels. BBC Radio Four serialised The Colour of Magic and Equal Rites (1987)and these brought him great popularity. There are now more than 30 books in this series, set in a surreal world on the back of four elephants that stand on the shell of Great A'Tuin, the sky turtle. The Discworld series is popular world-wide and has led to the production of much related merchandise. Thud! (2005), features Sam Vimes, who has to get home each evening to read his son a picture book - Where's My Cow?. Where's My Cow?, published in 2005, alongside Thud! The latest novel in the series is The Unseen Academicals (2009).

Hailed as one of the greatest humorous satirists, Pratchett has also become one of the few writers to write across the adult/child divide. His book, Truckers (1989), was the first children's book to appear in British adult fiction best-seller lists.

Terry Pratchett has also written many novels for young readers, and the end-of-the-world novel Good Omens (1990) - in collaboration with Neil Gaiman. He has also written several short stories, some of which are on Discworld themes. His books have sold over thirty-five million copies worldwide and have been translated into over thirty languages. 'To say that Terry Pratchett is popular ...' writes Kate Saunders in the Sunday Express (2 June 1996), ' ... is like saying the Arctic Circle is a bit nippy.

He has been awarded three honorary degrees, in 1999 by the University of Warwick, in 2001 by the University of Portsmouth, and in 2003 by the University of Bath. In 2009 he received a Knighthood.

Terry Pratchett is involved with the Orang-Utan Foundation, and visited Borneo with a film-crew to make the documentary Terry Pratchett's Jungle Quest for BBC Television. He lives with his family in Wiltshire.

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Genres (in alphabetical order)

Children, Science-fiction, Short stories

Bibliography

The Carpet People   Colin Smythe, 1971

The Dark Side of the Sun   Colin Smythe, 1976

Strata   Colin Smythe, 1981

The Colour of Magic   Colin Smythe, 1983

The Light Fantastic   Colin Smythe, 1986

Equal Rites   Gollancz in association with Colin Smythe, 1987

Mort   Gollancz in association with Colin Smythe, 1987

Sourcery   Gollancz in association with Colin Smythe, 1988

Wyrd Sisters   Gollancz, 1988

Pyramids   Gollancz, 1989

Truckers   Doubleday, 1989

The Unadulterated Cat   Gollancz, 1989

Guards!Guards!   Gollancz, 1989

Diggers   Doubleday, 1990

Good Omens   (with N. Gaiman)   Gollancz, 1990

Eric   Gollancz, 1990

Wings   Doubleday, 1990

Moving Pictures   Gollancz, 1990

Reaper Man   Gollancz, 1991

Witches Abroad   Gollancz, 1991

Small Gods   Gollancz, 1992

Only You Can Save Mankind   Gollancz, 1992

Lords and Ladies   Gollancz, 1992

Johnny and the Dead   Doubleday, 1993

Men at Arms   Gollancz, 1993

Soul Music   Gollancz, 1994

The Discworld Companion   (with Stephen Briggs, revised 1997; re-published as The New Discworld Companion; 2003)   Gollancz, 1994

Interesting Times   Gollancz, 1994

Maskerade   Gollancz, 1995

Johnny and the Bomb   Doubleday, 1996

Feet of Clay   Gollancz, 1996

The Pratchett Portfolio   (illustrated by Paul Kidby)   Gollancz, 1996

Hogfather   Gollancz, 1996

Jingo   Gollancz, 1997

The Last Continent   Doubleday, 1998

Carpe Jugulum   Doubleday, 1998

Nanny Ogg's Cookbook   (with recipes by Tina Hannan and Stephen Briggs, illustrated by Paul Kidby)   Doubleday, 1999

The Fifth Elephant   Doubleday, 1999

The Science of Discworld   (with Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen)   Ebury Press, 1999

The Truth   Doubleday, 2000

Thief of Time   Doubleday, 2001

The Last Hero   Gollancz, 2001

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents   Doubleday, 2001

The Science of Discworld II: The Globe   (with Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen)   Ebury Press, 2002

Night Watch   Doubleday, 2002

The Wee Free Men   Doubleday, 2003

Monstrous Regiment   Doubleday, 2003

A Hat Full of Sky   Doubleday, 2004

Going Postal   Doubleday, 2004

Darwin's Watch: The Science of Discworld III   (with Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart)   Ebury Press, 2005

Thud!   Doubleday, 2005

Where's My Cow?   Doubleday, 2005

Wintersmith   Doubleday, 2006

Lu-tse's Year Book of Enlightenment   (with Stephen Briggs)   Gollancz, 2007

Making Money   Doubleday, 2007

Terry Pratchett's Hogfather: The Illustrated Screenplay   Gollancz, 2007

The Illustrated Wee Free Men   (illustrated by Stephen Player)   Doubleday, 2007

The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld   Doubleday, 2007

Nation   Doubleday, 2008

Sourcery: The Illustrated Screenplay   Gollancz, 2008

The Folklore of Discworld   (with Jacqueline Simpson)   Doubleday, 2008

The Unseen Academicals   Doubleday, 2009

Read about books by Terry Pratchett at encompassculture.com - the British Council's book database and global online book club

Buy books by Terry Pratchett at Amazon.co.uk

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Prizes and awards

1989   British Fantasy Award   (Best Novel)   Pyramids

1993   Guardian Children's Fiction Prize   (shortlist)

1993   Writers' Guild Award (Best Children's Book)   Johnny and the Dead

1994   Carnegie Medal   (shortlist)   Johnny and the Dead

1996   Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (Silver Award)   (9-11 years category)   Johnny and the Bomb

1997   Carnegie Medal   (shortlist)   Johnny and the Bomb

1997   Guardian Children's Fiction Prize   (shortlist)

1998   OBE

2001   Carnegie Medal   The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents

2002   WH Smith Award for Children's Literature   (shortlist)   The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents

2004   WH Smith People's Choice Award   The Wee Free Men

2005   Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize   (shortlist)   Going Postal

2006   Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize   (shortlist)   Thud

2007   British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year   (shortlist)   Wintersmith

2009   KBE

2009   Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Young Adult Fiction)   Nation

2009   Writers' Guild Award   (Outstanding Contribution to Children's Writing)

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Critical Perspective

Like Star Trek, Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings, Terry Pratchett’s work inspires obsession. His novels have given rise to regular Discworld Conventions, a lucrative merchandising industry and a fan base bordering on the psychotic. With his keen scientific eye and vast reservoir of imagination, he has fashioned his own beautifully realised ‘multiverse,’ peopled with trolls, wizards, gnomes and zombies. In fact until J.K. Rowling arrived, he was Britain’s bestselling author.

Terry Pratchett is Tolkein with gags, less farcical but much funnier than Tom Sharpe. His playfulness with the language is a constant delight. His novels have the tautness of well-crafted thrillers. Stephen Fry once wrote that P.G. Wodehouse, one of Britain’s most fabled exponents of absurd parody and comic writing, ‘exhausts superlatives.’ The same could be said of the creator of Ankh-Morpork and the ever-dissolute Nanny Ogg. Pratchett offers the reader, particularly one who feels any sort of kinship with The Simpsons, This is Spinal Tap, or the work of Douglas Adams, a variety of narrative joys. He consistently amuses by satirising convention and expectation at almost every turn. There are those who see the word ‘fantasy’ and run a thousand miles, who dismiss writers like Pratchett for being purveyors of adolescent silliness. This is pompous nonsense. Pratchett is for readers who appreciate that one of the functions of the novelist is to create a world within which readers can lose themselves so completely, that they emerge from the fiction almost dazed, stumbling back into the strange flatness of reality. Would that most novelists had an ounce of his inventiveness.

The Discworld – which rests upon the back of four elephants, which are, in turn supported by a giant turtle hurtling through space – is deliberately constituted so as to appear as bizarre and ridiculous as possible. It captures the essential absurdity of existence. And yet the true success of the novels is due to their rearrangement of the familiar. Pratchett takes a recognisable world and reshapes it until it appears that we are seeing it anew. There is an exuberant, childlike innocence to much of Pratchett’s work, a delight in the wonder of the world and a fascination with the mechanics of civilisation. However, this is not to suggest that there are no serious concerns. In fact, there is a moral core to Pratchett’s work which moves it well beyond fancy and flippancy. Pratchett often deals with human agency, with taking responsibility for one’s lot. He also counsels that we each in our turn offer a helping hand to those who may need it. In essence, Pratchett is a traditionalist – if we deem such virtues as hard work and mutual respect to be ‘traditional.’  The Discworld novels have dealt with everything from the freedom of the press to the nature of political persuasion. And whilst the earlier novels were generally more light-hearted, with much of the humour being derived from straight gags, there are darker and more sombre tones creeping into the novels of late. Going Postal (2004), about the wonderfully named Moist von Lipwig, a con artist faced with a choice – resurrect the fortunes of the Ankh-Morpok’s postal service or be hanged – is not only a parody of the internet but also a barbed commentary on the corporate world. Thud!(2005) deals with racism and the irrational fear of outsiders, while Making Money (2007), which sees the return of Moist von Lipwig, is an inspired examination of the strangeness of the economy, which achieves the near miracle of making the economy a fascinating subject. Never less than topical, and increasingly political, Pratchett’s skill is to wrap his sharp observations on human life within fiction which provides such consistent entertainment.

Like Monty Python, Pratchett is endlessly quotable. You could fill an entire book of quotations from the Discworld series alone. In the Pratchett Portfolio, a compendium of all things Discworld, Granny Weatherwax, one of the most beloved of all the inhabitants of Ankh-Morpork, is described as ‘never happier than when she’s got something to disapprove of.’ This kind of sentence exemplifies Pratchett’s use of comedic subversion. He is also extremely adept at word play: ‘Sam Vimes felt like a class traitor every time he wore [his gold breastplate]. He hated being thought of as one of those people that wore stupid ornamental armour. It was gilt by association,’ Night Watch (2002).

In a 2000 interview on his use of computers Pratchett said: ‘it’s not whether or not you can use a computer, it’s whether your granny can use one that things then become interesting,’ (Hamish Mackintosh, The Guardian, 27 January 2000) Family, particularly those members of a grandmotherly age or disposition, are significant in the world Pratchett has created in such abundant detail. In a time which has lost its sense of community and shared values, part of the charm of the Discworld is that it involves a communion of souls. They may fight and argue and disagree with one another, but there is always a sense of people coming together. What is more, Pratchett has helped create a community of fans, united in their excitement and anticipation each time a new book is published.

Despite tremendous worldwide success with his beautifully illustrated novels, Terry Pratchett remains an aloof, almost enigmatic figure. And this, of course, only serves to give more power to his work. Unless you are one of the great fervent legion who queue for hours in the rain to meet the author in person, just to share a word and get that fluid signature on the inside cover of your favourite book, you will probably only recognise the man as the bespectacled and be-hatted fellow seen on the fly cover of his hardback books. Or you won’t recognise him at all. Pratchett is the antithesis of the celebrity writer. This is another key to his appeal. He cares about his fans.

Pratchett is an outrageously prolific author who has produced far more than the Discworld series alone. In 2001 he won the Carnegie Medal for The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, a novel for children which was a slyly subversive take on the tale of the Pied Piper. He has also collaborated on all sorts of adaptations of his work, from computer games to theatrical productions. In 2006’s Vadim Jean’s two-part television adaptation of The Hogfather was very well received. However, there are 36 Discworld novels, and I urge you to start there. Whether you are looking for a sublime attack on xenophobia and the pernicious nature of the traditional fairy tale, Witches Abroad (1991); a play on the crime thriller and the celebration of the power of the printed word, The Truth (2000); or if you just want to know what the ever industrious ‘dwarfes’ are up to next, take to the bookshop or library and go to the P section. If you do not find what you are looking for I will eat Mrs Cake’s impossibly large hat and join The Fresh Start Club.

Garan Holcombe, 2007

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Contact information

Publisher (General enquiries) Doubleday (UK) c/o Transworld Publishers 61-63 Uxbridge Road London  W5 5SA England Tel: +44 (0)20 8579 2652 Fax: +44 (0)20 8579 5479 E-mail: info@transworld-publishers.co.uk http://www.booksattransworld.co.uk

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Related links

http:/ / www.meettheauthor.co.uk

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