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Terence David John Pratchett OBE (born April 28, 1948, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England•) is an English fantasy author, best known for his Discworld series. As of March 2005 he had sold approximately 40 million books worldwide.
Biography Terry Pratchett was born in 1948 in Beaconsfield to David and Eileen Pratchett, of Hay-on-Wye. He credits his education to High Wycombe Technical High School and Beaconsfield Public Library. It was during his time as a journalist that he was sent to interview Peter Bander van Duren, a co-director of Colin Smythe Limited, a small publishing company in Gerrards Cross, about a new book the company was publishing and Pratchett happened to mention that he had written a novel of his own, The Carpet People. It was eventually published in 1971. In 1980, he became Press Officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board in an area which covered several nuclear power stations; he later joked that he had demonstrated impeccable timing by making this career change so soon after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania, USA. Pratchett gave up his work for the CEGB in 1987 when he realised he could make a living through writing; this accounts for a significant increase in his output, and since then he has managed to publish two novels a year. According to the 2005 Booksellers' Pocket Yearbook, in 2003 Pratchett's UK sales amounted to 3.4% of the fiction market by hardback sales and 3.8% by value, putting him in 2nd place behind J. K. Rowling (6% and 5.6% respectively), while in the paperback sales list Pratchett came 5th with 1.2% by sales and 1.3% by value (behind James Patterson (1.9% and 1.7%), Alexander McCall Smith, John Grisham and J. R. R. Tolkien). In 1997 Pratchett appeared on the science-fiction game show Space Cadets, hosted by Greg Proops: When Proops asked the question: "Who is Britain's most shoplifted author?" Pratchett immediately answered: "I am!" "Correct!" confirmed Proops. In 1998 Terry Pratchett was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to literature. Typically, his own tongue-in-cheek comment was "I suspect the 'services to literature' consisted of refraining from trying to write any." He has been awarded honorary Doctorates of Literature, by the University of Warwick in 1999 •, the University of Portsmouth in 2001 •, the University of Bath in 2003 • and the University of Bristol in 2004 •. His daughter Rhianna Pratchett (born 1976) is a journalist and "accidental cat collector"; she has also written a fantasy novella titled Child of Chaos, distributed with the computer role-playing game Beyond Divinity. She is working on the scripts and storyline for the PS3 launch game Heavenly Sword, the Xbox 360/PC game Overlord, and several others. She is a member of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain.• Pratchett lists his recreations as "writing, walking, computers, life". He is also well known for his penchant for wearing large, black hats, as seen on the inside back covers of most of his books. On July 31, 2005, Pratchett criticised media coverage of Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling, commenting that certain members of the media seemed to think that "the continued elevation of J. K. Rowling can only be achieved at the expense of other writers". His remarks were later taken out of context and interpreted by many as an attack on Rowling herself, rather than the media. • Terry Pratchett is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association.• His father died on the morning of Friday 5th May, 2006.• Discworld
Related works Together with Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, Pratchett has also written The Science of Discworld (1999), The Science of Discworld II: The Globe (2002) and The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch (2005). All of these have chapters that alternate between fiction and non-fiction, with the fictional chapters being set within the universe of the Discworld, as its characters observe and experiment on a universe not unlike ours. In 1999 Terry Pratchett made both Cohen and Stewart "Honorary Wizards of the Unseen University" at the same ceremony at which the University of Warwick gave Terry Pratchett an honorary degree.• The Bromeliad The Johnny Maxwell Trilogy Other works Books containing contributions from Pratchett Comic books Theatre Several of Pratchett's novels have been adapted as plays by Stephen Briggs and many of the scripts have been published in book form. These include: In addition, Lords & Ladies has been adapted for the stage by Irana Brown and published. Television Animation Radio Role-playing games PC and Console games The Discworld universe has also been used as a basis for a number of Discworld video games on a range of formats, such as the Sega Saturn, the Sony Playstation, the Philips CD-i and the 3DO, as well as DOS- and Windows-based PCs. The most notable games are: Work is currently underway to add support for Discworld and Discworld II to ScummVM, a cross-platform adventure game interpreter. Movies Terry Pratchett's novel The Wee Free Men is set to be turned into a film by Sam Raimi, after he finishes work on Spider-Man 3; currently this is expected to be released in 2007. * Works about Pratchett Pratchett's books have received a level of critical acclaim unusual for their genre. A collection of essays about his writings is compiled in the book, Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature?, eds. Andrew M. Butler, Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn, published by Science Fiction Foundation in 2000. A second expanded edition was published by Old Earth Books in 2004. Andrew M. Butler also wrote a Pocket Essentials guide to Pratchett in 2001. Two Discworld quiz books have been published, both compiled by David Langford. They are named The Unseen University Challenge and The Wyrdest Link. Fans It is possible to get a character in one of the future Discworld books named after yourself. Usually people appear in the books by bidding for the privilege in charity auctions. See: Discworld, Discworld characters. The cover art of all of the Discworld novels sold in the United Kingdom was created by Josh Kirby until his death in 2001. Subsequent covers have been illustrated by Paul Kidby. Internet Pratchett was one of the first authors to use the Internet to communicate with fans and has been a contributor to the Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.pratchett since 1992. Pratchett fan forums can also be found on his official website, http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com. Influences Terry Pratchett makes no secret of outside influences on his work; they are a major source of humour. He imports numerous characters from popular culture, but adds an unexpected aspect. These references are fairly consistent, and there are lists available on Terry Pratchett fansites which detail all the known references. One of the most known lists is the Annotated Pratchett File,* mantained at the L-Space Website.* Orangutans Pratchett's interest in orangutans is not confined to the Librarian, one of his most popular fictional characters. He has also done work for the Orangutan Foundation including visiting Borneo with a Channel 4 film crew to make an episode of "Jungle Quest", seeing orangutans in their natural habitat. Following Pratchett's lead, fan events such as the Discworld Conventions have adopted the Orangutan Foundation as their nominated charity. At these conventions, if Pratchett is attending, there is often a traditional auction in which fans can bid money to have their name included in the next Discworld book. All proceeds go to the Orangutan Foundation.* Trademarks Aside from his distinctive writing style, Pratchett is known for the use of footnotes in his books. Usually involving a comic departure from the narrative or commentary on the narrative, these footnotes are more numerous in his earlier work. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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