Terence David John Pratchett
15 min read
Reading time
2,842
Words
Published
13
Film credits
142
Books
15
Awards
Terry Pratchett wrote 41 Discworld novels before dying from Alzheimer’s in 2015. He was knighted in 2009 and published his first story at age 15. He co-wrote Good Omens with Neil Gaiman.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Terry Pratchett — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Terry Pratchett by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Terry Pratchett — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Terry Pratchett built a small observatory in his garden as a child, fascinated by astronomy. He grew up in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, as the only son of David and Eileen Pratchett. At John Hampden Grammar School, he published his first story, The Hades Business, at age 15 in Science Fantasy in 1963.
The Discworld series launched with The Colour of Magic in 1983 and grew to 41 novels. Pratchett collaborated with Neil Gaiman on Good Omens 1990, adapted as a TV series in 2019. He worked as a journalist until 1980, then as a publicity officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board until 1987, when he became a full-time writer. He made cameo appearances: the Toymaker in Hogfather 2006 and a postman in Going Postal 2010.
Pratchett married Lyn Marian Purves in 1968; they had one daughter, Rhianna, who became a video game writer. In March 2008, he revealed his diagnosis of Posterior Cortical Atrophy, a rare Alzheimer’s form. He donated £500,000 to research and presented the 2011 BBC documentary Choosing to Die, in which he attended the assisted suicide of Peter Smedley in Switzerland.
The Discworld series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide. Pratchett won the Carnegie Medal in 2001 for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents and was knighted in 2009. After his death, a steamroller crushed his hard drives with unfinished works at the Great Dorset Steam Fair in 2017. His satirical fantasy and Alzheimer’s advocacy define his legacy.
Browse the complete filmography of Terry Pratchett — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Terry Pratchett — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Terry Pratchett's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
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A wall of memorable lines from Terry Pratchett — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
In Ancient Times Cats Were Worshiped as Gods. They Have Not Forgotten This.
The Baby Boomers Are Getting Older and Will Stay Older for Longer. and They Will Run Right into the Dementia Firing Range. How Will a Society Cope? Especially a Society That Can’t so Readily Rely on Those Stable Family Relationships That Traditionally Provided One Backbone of Care?
In the Beginning There Was Nothing, Which Exploded.
Fantasy Is an Exercise Bicycle for the Mind. It Might Not Take You Anywhere, but It Tones up the Muscles That Can.
Most Gods Throw Dice, but Fate Plays Chess, and You Don’t Find Out Til Too Late That He’s Been Playing with Two Queens All Along.
I Wouldn’t Pay More Than a Couple of Quid to See Me, and I’m Me.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star…. What Power! What Wondrous Power! You Can Take a Billion Trillion Tons of Flaming Matter, a Furnace of Unimaginable Strength, and Turn It into a Little Song for Children! You Build Little Worlds, Little Stories, Little Shells Around Your Minds, and That Keeps Infinity at Bay and Allows You to Wake up in the Morning Without Screaming!
They Say That the Prospect of Being Hanged in the Morning Concentrates a Man’s Mind Wonderfully; Unfortunately What the Mind Inevitably Concentrates on Is That It Is in a Body That, in the Morning, Is Going to Be Hanged.
The Freedom to Succeed Goes Hand in Hand with the Freedom to Fail.
Speak Softly and Employ a Huge Man with a Crowbar.
There Are Those Who Say That Sherry Should Not Be Drunk Early in the Morning. They Are Wrong.
You Can’t Make People Happy by Law. If You Said to a Bunch of Average People Two Hundred Years Ago Would You Be Happy in a World Where Medical Care Is Widely Available, Houses Are Clean, the World’s Music and Sights and Foods Can Be Brought into Your Home at Small Cost, Traveling Even 100 Miles Is Easy, Childbirth Is Generally Not Fatal to Mother or Child, You Don’t Have to Die of Dental Abscesses and You Don’t Have to Do What the Squire Tells You They’d Think You Were Talking About the New Jerusalem and Say Yes.
Go On, Prove Me Wrong. Destroy the Fabric of the Universe. See If I Care.
Everyone’s Heard of Erwin Schrodinger’s Famous Thought Experiment. You Put a Cat in a Box with a Bottle of Poison, Which Many People Would Suggest Is About as Far as You Need to Go…
As a Fantasy Writer I Create Fresh Gods and Philosophies Almost with Every New Book … but Since Contracting Alzheimer’s Disease I Have Spent My Long Winter Walks Trying to Work Out What It Is That I Really, If Anything, Believe.
Evolution Was Far More Thrilling to Me Than the Biblical Account. Who Would Not Rather Be a Rising Ape Than a Falling Angel? to My Juvenile Eyes Darwin Was Proved True Every Day. It Doesn’t Take Much to Make Us Flip Back into Monkeys Again.
I Asked a Teacher What the Opposite of a Miracle Was and She, Without Thinking I Assume, Said It Was an Act of God. You Shouldn’t Say Something Like That to the Kind of Kid Who Will Grow up to Be a Writer; We Have Long Memories.
I Don’t Think I’ve Found God, but I May Have Seen Where Gods Come From.
If You Have Enough Book Space, I Don’t Want to Talk to You.
They Don’t Teach You the Facts of Death, Your Mum and Dad. They Give You Pets.
The Hedgehog Can Never Be Buggered at All.
It’s Amazing How Much of Fantasy Is Rearranging the Furniture in Tolkien’s Attic.
The British Have the Best System for Locking up the Wrong People as Quickly as Possible.
What Would Humans Be Without Love?””RARE
Little-known facts about Terry Pratchett — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Book signings by Pratchett were so numerous that fans joked unsigned copies held more value than signed ones.
Due to NHS age restrictions, Pratchett paid out-of-pocket for the Alzheimer’s drug Aricept because he was considered too young for free provision.
Adult Discworld novels initially lacked chapters, while younger-reader books like the Tiffany Aching series and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents included them. After a critic claimed Pratchett could not write chapters, he added them to adult novels such as The Truth and Going Postal, featuring ornate Victorian-style chapter headings to prove the point.
Pratchett donated £500,000 approximately $1 million to support Alzheimer’s disease research.
In March 2008, Pratchett publicly announced his diagnosis of Posterior Cortical Atrophy, a rare variant of Alzheimer’s disease.
Pratchett was a fan of Blue Oyster Cult; he incorporated the Latin title of their hit ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’ into his narratives.
The Discworld series, set on a flat world carried by four elephants atop a giant turtle named A’tuin, includes 41 completed and published novels by Pratchett.
While filming the BBC documentary Choosing to Die, which he presented, Pratchett was present during the assisted suicide of Peter Smedley at the Dignitas clinic in Forch, Switzerland.
After receiving his knighthood, Pratchett smelted 81 kilograms of iron ore in a homemade kiln, added meteorite fragments, and had a blacksmith forge a sword. He kept the weapon hidden, concerned it would be seized as an illegal weapon, remarking that knights should be allowed to carry swords without being accused of knife crime.
Pratchett received the OBE in 1998 for services to literature.
Pratchett collaborated with author and friend Neil Gaiman.
Pratchett attributed his lisp to a bicycle fall at age 5.
On July 14, 1999, Pratchett received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Warwick and simultaneously appointed his co-authors Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen as the first honorary Wizards of the Unseen University.
Astronomy fascinated Pratchett from childhood; he had a small observatory constructed in his garden.
Pratchett was knighted in the 2009 New Year’s Honours List.
Pratchett requested that hard drives with his unfinished works be crushed by a steamroller. This took place at the Great Dorset Steam Fair in August 2017, destroying an estimated 10 unfinished books.
Pratchett worked full-time as a journalist until 1980, then became a publicity officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board until 1987, when he became a full-time writer.
Pratchett’s first published work, The Hades Business, appeared in Science Fantasy magazine in 1963.
Pratchett occasionally posted on the Usenet groups alt.fan.pratchett and alt.books.pratchett.
The title Knight Bachelor was awarded to Pratchett in the 2009 Queen’s New Year Honours List for services to literature.
Hammer Horror films were a lifelong passion for Pratchett, who cited them as a major influence on the Discworld series.
The play Monstrous Regiment, adapted from his novel and staged by Lifeline Theatre in Chicago, was nominated for a 2015 Joseph Jefferson Non-Equity Award for Play Production.
A detailed biography and bibliography of Pratchett appears in Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series, Volume 170 2008.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Terry Pratchett.
Celebrities similar to Terry Pratchett — same craft, ranked by reach.
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