Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes: The Official Biography

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At the age of six, Terry was told by his headteacher that he would never amount to anything. He spent the rest of his life proving that teacher wrong. Terry lived a life full of achievements, becoming one of the UK’s bestselling writers, winning The Carnegie Medal and being awarded a knighthood for services to literature. Next, I learned that, “Terry used to describe himself as ‘horizontally wealthy,” meaning that money hadn’t changed the person that he was, he could just afford to buy more things. However, he made some interesting choices, “instead of a Delorean DMC-12, Terry bought a shepherd’s hut,” which is “where [he] had the idea for the character of Tiffany Aching.” It took me a few months before I actually read this biography of Terry, written by his long-time personal assistant Rob Wilkins, even though I bought it the day it came out. Honestly, I was just not ready to read about Terry succumbing to early onset Alzheimer’s, the “embuggerance” that creeped up robbing him of what made him Terry Pratchett, the writer and the person, until it prematurely robbed him of his life. 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. The biography will be published in September. Publisher Transworld said it would move from Pratchett being told at the age of six by his headteacher that he would never amount to anything, through the writing of the bestselling Discworld series, his winning the Carnegie medal and his knighthood for services to literature. Wilkins will also cover how Pratchett coped with the challenges of Alzheimer’s.

Our servers are getting hit pretty hard right now. To continue shopping, enter the characters as they are shownBefore his untimely death, Terry was writing a memoir: the story of a boy who aged six was told by his teacher that he would never amount to anything and spent the rest of his life proving him wrong. For Terry lived a life full of astonishing achievements: becoming one of the UK's bestselling and most beloved writers, winning the prestigious Carnegie Medal and being awarded a knighthood. Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes is a moving and informative tribute to one of the most beloved and innovative authors of our time. Written by his close friend and colleague Rob Wilkins, this book offers a comprehensive and intimate look at the life and career of Terry Pratchett, from his humble beginnings in the small town of Beaconsfield to his rise as one of the most successful and influential fantasy writers of all time. Two years after bestselling and beloved British author Terry Pratchett died, the hard drive was taken out of his computer and run over by a steamroller – as per his instructions. No drafts, no half-finished stories, no lost scenes from his novels were ever going to see the light of day. In life, Pratchett guarded his work and his legacy very closely. It makes sense that this attitude would continue even beyond the span of his life.

Sir Terry is the famous author of the Discworld series (and more). In December 2007, he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's of all things. It seems especially ironic and tragic that he had this particular illness what with him being a writer, his calling being bringing to life strange worlds and people, living in his own head so to speak - when it is his mind that was to fail him before his body would. And Wilkins clearly loved him, having been not just an employee but a friend and eventually, with the “embuggerance”, also often a caretaker. And yet his view of Terry is not that of starry-eyed admiration but a realistic one, with the down-to-earth admiration and sometimes tolerance and at times friendly exasperation. It’s both heartbreaking and funny, bittersweet and joyful — all at the same time. He doesn’t sugarcoat Terry at his highs or his lows, and that conveys the feeling of seeing a closeup of a real, complex person. PRESS RELEASE: TRANSWORLD TO PUBLISH A STROKE OF THE PEN: A COLLECTION OF REDISCOVERED SHORT STORIESDrawing on his own extensive memories, as well as those of Terry’s family, close friends, fans and the colleagues who worked with him over the years, Rob recounts Terry’s story - from his early childhood to the literary phenomenon that his Discworld series became. It also chronicles Terry’s later years, his championing of environmental and humanitarian causes, and how he met and coped with the challenges that ‘The Embuggerance’ of Alzheimer’s brought with it. Terry often talked about “doing” his autobiography. In the years before he was ill, he talked about it almost exclusively to dismiss the idea. He didn’t seem persuaded that there was anything in the story of the journey that took a kid from a council house in Beaconsfield to a knighthood and a mansion near Salisbury by the sheer power of his imagination alone; or in the tale of how a boy with, as Terry put it, “a mouthful of speech impediments” became one of his generation’s most popular communicators; or how someone who left school with five O-levels could also go on to have an honorary professorship at Trinity College Dublin. And besides, there were always other things waiting to be written – bigger stories in which far more outlandish and arresting things were free to happen. This isn't a new novel. This isn't some crazy story of wild adventures. This is a chance to learn more about Sir Terry; about his books, about his writing processes, and about facing a looming darkness. Yes parts of it are sad, but it's also heartwarming and funny and thoroughly interesting throughout. Here’s the former press officer of the Central Electricity Generating Board, South Western Region, with his name in lights – Terry Pratchett at the peak of his powers.

What makes this book particularly special is the way that Wilkins weaves together personal anecdotes, interviews with Pratchett's family and friends, and insights into the creative process that led to some of his most beloved works. Through Wilkins' careful curation of photographs, letters, and other memorabilia, readers gain a sense of Pratchett as both a gifted writer and a complex human being, with all the flaws and foibles that come with that. But then he thought about it more seriously. “I wish I had started writing for a living earlier,” he said eventually. “I could probably have started to write full time about 10 years before I did.”His 25th Discworld novel, The Truth, looks at the realities of working at a newspaper and is clearly informed by his years spent as a journalist. A Life with Footnotes*, however, shows how the harrowing and humorous experiences Pratchett had across those years spill into all his books, not only that one; into the methodical approach to writing that meant he regularly produced several novels a year, and into his outlook. So I thank you Rob for this wonderful book. I wept at the beginning. I wept at the end. I cried for all the characters I'll miss and those I never got to meet. Writing was mostly what he did. There isn't a huge amount to sustain a biography in the usual way of things. There is, however, the Embuggerance: this brilliant author's horrifically early slide into dementia via a particularly virulent form of Alzheimers that took away his memories, his ability to make connections, his words. Who would want to read a book that is suitable for you? Not me, for one. I wanted the unsuitable books.” - Terry Pratchett