Terry Pratchett was a true library lover and wrote, “it seemed to be that just being inside a library was nearly enough, as if everything in the books would permeate your skin by some kind of osmosis.” As a lad, he hung out at Beaconsfield Library and “found himself incorporated into the library workforce as a Saturday boy.” He worked at reshelving and repairing books on a voluntary basis. In return, the unspoken agreement was that he could borrow an unlimited number of books from the library. A deeply moving and personal portrait of the extraordinary life of Sir Terry Pratchett, written with unparalleled insight and filled with funny anecdotes, this is the only official biography of one of our finest authors. Rob may not have come into Terry's life until much later but this was being worked on before he was taken from us for too soon and we are given insights by his friends, family and former work colleagues to give us a book that is bursting with detail that it could almost have been completely written by the man himself. When I first began reading Discworld I'd see the About the Author section (a couple of lines at best) and see he used to work as a journalist. Here we are treated to tales of his experiences, some so far fetched it's almost unbelievable (almost) and all that happened in his younger years that he used to become the phenomenally successful author he would become. His work ethic was second to none and his dedication to putting out quality book after quality book was breathtaking.

Terry Pratchett : A Life With Footnotes The Official

A emotional roller coaster of a book but I knew it would be, I laughed more then I cried but that's the way with Sir Terry's books, there could of been only one person to continue his biography and I'm glad Rob got the chance to do so. Deserves more then 5 stars!!!

About Sir Terry

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. So. I have gone. There were days when I felt I had already gone and so all I wish for now is a cool, quiet room and some peace to gather my addled thoughts. I think I was good, although I could have been better, but Terry Pratchett is dead and there are no more words. 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 … A co na ní bylo tak zvláštního, že jsem se nakonec pročetla až do konce? Cit, hořkosladkost, naděje a plno zlomených srdcí mezi řádky. O pár set stran později se k nim to moje přidalo. Before his death, Terry was working on an autobiography, which was never completed—but contrary to the hard-drive containing all of his unpublished fiction, which, in accordance with his final wishes, was ritually destroyed by a steamroller, Rob took it upon himself to finish what Terry had started. He draws largely from Terry’s unfinished manuscript, but also from the stories of friends, family, and former colleagues… and if you thought that it wouldn’t be all that interesting until Terry becomes the beloved, bestselling author we all think of him as, then you would be very wrong. He lived a life filled with astonishing achievements in a variety of jobs, and had some peculiar hobbies and interests, ranging from electrical engineering, to beekeeping, gaming, rescuing tortoises, gardening, and casting insects in gold and silver. Always one with an inquisitive mind and easily kindled curiosity, Terry insisted on forging his own sword after being knighted for services to literature. It’s all illuminating, and I appreciated that Rob didn’t try to sugarcoat or hide Terry’s more disagreeable personality traits, such as his irascibility and ingratitude, but there were also many sweet, and even more funny passages. The book turns truly exceptional in the solemn final third though—right around when Terry starts exhibiting some worrying symptoms, which culminated in an earth-shattering diagnosis of Posterior Cortical Atrophy, a rare, visual variant of Alzheimer’s disease.

Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes by Rob Wilkins review Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes by Rob Wilkins review

Wilkins is a faithful and comprehensive documenter of Pratchett's life . . . moving and sensitive. Canberra Times

Retailers:

At six years old, Terry was told by his headteacher that he would never amount to anything. He spent the rest of his life proving that teacher wrong. At sixty-six, Terry had 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. However, there would be days, when the mood was right, when Terry would tell me to open the memoir file, and he would do an afternoon on the autobiography, him dictating, me typing. At the point at which we ran out of time, the file had grown to just over 24,000 words, rough-hewn, disjointed, awaiting the essential polish that Terry would never be in a position to give them. He was intending to call the book A Life With Footnotes. 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.”