Monday, 24th January , 2022 A LIFE WITH FOOTNOTES – ANNOUNCING THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY OF TERRY PRATCHETT Transworld Publishers are thrilled to announce the publication of Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes, the official biography of Sir Terry Pratchett, written by Rob Wilkins, his former assistant, friend and now head of the author’s literary estate. At the time of his death in 2015, Terry was working on his finest story yet – his own. He is often compared with PG Wodehouse but he’s closer to Swift. Or to GK Chesterton, from whom he drew so much inspiration. Like Chesterton, he is too bursting with ideas to confine himself to neat, prize-worthy volumes. He couldn’t even slow down enough to divide the books into chapters. And he has that Chestertonian quality of merriment, of intellectual play. 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. Even Pratchett himself, with his rings and his sword and his “manorette” of a house, sometimes gave the impression that he had just come down from the Ramtops. 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.” i'm hoping i'll be able to persuade my sister (who's never touched a discworld book in her life) to read this, and not even because i want her to somehow magically understand what pratchett's writing means to me - even if i did, that's arguably not within this book's scope - but because i think it is, for want of a better word, a story well told.

Některý knihy mají tu sílu najít si k vám cestu, i když jste se ani neobtěžovali podívat se jejich směrem. Neplánovala jsem a nečekala na první výtisky v knihkupectví. Přesto se mi jeden z nich do rukou dostal. A abych neurazila zběsilé nadšení majitele onoho výtisku, nalistovala jsem si předmluvu a začala číst … It was fun reading about the Discworld Conventions. At one in Liverpool, “the available food included what was widely agreed to have been one of the last servings of that dying culinary phenomenon, the Great British Curry, complete with obligatory sultanas, and there was something jelly-based for pudding.” If you are not a fan of the Discworld then you may not appreciate all the references made to the books but even as an autobiography of one of the UK's best selling and prolific authors, this is an extremely well written, thoughtful and very personal look at Terry Pratchett's remarkable life and work. Sometimes joyfully, sometimes painfully, intimate . . . it is wonderful to have this closeup picture of the writer's working life.' - Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Observer Rhianna, Terry and Lyn Pratchett, dressed for a stage adaptation of Maskerade in 1995. Photograph: PenguinMost 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* 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. Wilkins is a faithful and comprehensive documenter of Pratchett's life . . . moving and sensitive. Canberra Times 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.

There was Terry Pratchett who had to be bribed by his mother to do some reading until one day he found a book that enthralled him enough to start reading everything — and eventually create stories that similarly enthralled millions of readers. There was Pratchett the journalist and the nuclear industry press man, the guy who loved tinkering with electronics (and who had 6 monitor screens because - of course - there just wasn’t room for 8) and building greenhouses and raising goats. The man who from the age of 20 was the most married man in the world. The Terry who forged his own sword after being knighted for his contribution to literature (in your face, literary snobs). The Pratchett who could write two books a year because he took his job seriously, and yet have every book be amazing enough as though he’d spent years polishing it. Before 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. A moving and acutely observed account . . . Pratchett's magical mind, and dementia, by the man who knew him best. The Sunday Times 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. 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?’”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. 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. Drawing 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.