Everything about Terry Pratchett totally explained
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British
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| occupation = Novelist
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Comic fantasy
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Terence David John Pratchett,
OBE (born
28 April 1948) is a British
fantasy,
science fiction and
children's author. He is best known for his popular and long-running
Discworld series of comic fantasy novels. Pratchett's first novel,
The Carpet People, was published in
1971, and since his first
Discworld novel
(The Colour of Magic) was published in
1983, he's written two books a year on average. Pratchett is also known for close collaboration on adaptations of his books but has held back from
Discworld feature films so far.
Pratchett was the
UK's best-selling author of the 1990s,
and as of December 2007 has sold more than 55 million books worldwide,
with translations made in 33 languages.
In 2001 he won the
Carnegie Medal for his children's novel
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents.
Despite his popularity, Pratchett is often described as having a ‘
cult following’ - a factor seen as having, in the past, hindered his literary recognition.
Pratchett, who was named an
Officer of the Order of the British Empire "for services to literature" in 1998,
holds the record for the most
shoplifted author in Britain.
Background
Early life
Terry Pratchett was born in 1948 in
Beaconsfield in
Buckinghamshire,
England, the only child of David and Eileen Pratchett, of
Hay-on-Wye. He passed his
eleven plus exam in 1959, earning him a place in a
technical school (
High Wycombe Technical High School). Pratchett described himself as a "nondescript student", and in his
Who's Who entry, credits his education to the Beaconsfield Public Library.
His early interests included
astronomy; he collected
Brooke Bond tea cards about space, owned a telescope and desired to be an astronomer, but was no good at mathematics.
At the age of 13, Pratchett published his first short story
The Hades Business in the school magazine. It was published commercially when he was 15.
Pratchett earned 5
O-levels and started 3
A-level courses, in Art, English and History. Pratchett's first career choice was
journalism and he left school at 17 in 1965 to start working for the
Bucks Free Press. However, he finished his A-Level in English, and took a proficiency course for journalists.
Early career
Pratchett got his first 'break' in 1968, when working as a journalist. He came to interview
Peter Bander van Duren, co-director of a small publishing company. During the meeting, Pratchett mentioned he'd written a manuscript,
The Carpet People.
Bander van Duren and his business partner, Colin Smythe (of Colin Smythe Publishing) published the book in 1971, with illustrations by Pratchett himself.
The book received strong, if few reviews.
The book was followed by the
science fiction novels
The Dark Side of the Sun and
Strata, published in 1976 and 1981, respectively.
The first
Discworld novel
The Colour of Magic was published in 1983 by Colin Smythe in
hardback and by
New English Library in
paperback. The publishing rights for paperback were soon taken by Corgi, an
imprint of
Transworld, the current publisher. Pratchett received further popularity after the BBC's
Woman's Hour broadcast
The Light Fantastic as a serial in six parts, after it was published in 1986. Subsequently, rights for hardback were taken by the publishing house
Victor Gollancz, which has remained Pratchett's publisher, and Smythe became Pratchett's
agent. Pratchett was the first fantasy author published by Gollancz.
His sales in the UK alone are more than 2.5 million copies a year. He describes himself an
atheist and is a Distinguished Supporter of the
British Humanist Association.
Pratchett is well known for his penchant for wearing large, black hats, as seen on the inside back covers of most of his books. His style has been described as "more that of urban cowboy than city gent."
Concern for the future of civilisation has prompted him to install five kilowatts of
photovoltaic cells (for solar energy) at his house. In addition, his childhood interest in astronomy has led him to build an observatory in his garden. Pratchett appealed to people to "keep things cheerful", and proclaimed that "we are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism."
Leading the way, Pratchett stated that he feels he's time for "at least a few more books yet", and added that while he understands the impulse to ask 'is there anything I can do?', in this particular case he'll only entertain such offers from "very high-end experts in brain chemistry."
In March 2008, Pratchett announced he was donating one million US dollars (about £494,000) to the
Alzheimer's Research Trust, claiming he'd spoken to at least 3 brain tumour (cancer) survivors whilst he'd spoken to no survivors of Alzheimer's disease, and that he was shocked "to find out that funding for Alzheimer's research is just 3% of that to find cancer cures." Of his donation Mr. Pratchett said: "I am, along with many others, scrabbling to stay ahead long enough to be there when the Cure comes along.”
Pratchett's donation inspired an internet campaign where fans hope to 'Match it for Pratchett', by raising another $1 million.
In April 2008, the BBC began working with Pratchett to make a documentary series based on his illness. He also made an appearance on
The One Show on 15 May 2008, talking about his condition. He was the subject and interviewee of the
20 May 2008 edition of
On the Ropes (
Radio 4), discussing Alzheimer's and how it had affected his life.
Interests
Computers and the Internet
Pratchett started to use computers for writing as soon as they were available to him. His first computer was a
Sinclair ZX81, the first computer he properly used for writing was an
Amstrad 464, later replaced by a
PC. Pratchett was one of the first authors to routinely use the Internet to communicate with fans, and has been a contributor to the
Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.pratchett since 1992. However, he doesn't consider the Internet as a hobby, just another "thing to use".
Pratchett is also an avid
computer game player, and he's collaborated in the creation of a number of game adaptations of his books. He favours games that are 'intelligent and have some depth', and has used
Half-Life 2 (as opposed to
Doom 3) and fan missions from
Thief as examples.
Natural history
Pratchett has a fascination with natural history that he's referred to many times. Pratchett owns a greenhouse full of
carnivorous plants. He has often mentioned this on his book biographies and they've appeared in his novels.
Orangutans
Pratchett is a trustee for the
Orangutan Foundation UK but is pessimistic about the animal's future.
Following Pratchett's lead, fan events such as the Discworld Conventions have adopted the Orangutan Foundation as their nominated charity, which has been acknowledged by the foundation.
One of Pratchett's most popular fictional characters,
the Librarian of the
Unseen University's Library, is an orangutan.
Writing career
Awards
Pratchett was the
British Book Awards' 'Fantasy and Science Fiction Author of the Year' for 1994.
After being awarded his
OBE for 'services to literature' in 1998, Pratchett commented in the
Ansible SF/fan newsletter, "I suspect the 'services to literature' consisted of refraining from trying to write any" (suggesting the title was more a recognition of success, than an acknowledgement of the fantasy genre). But then added, "Still, I can't help feeling mightily chuffed about it."
Pratchett has been awarded four honorary
Doctorates of Literature;
University of Warwick in 1999, the
University of Portsmouth in 2001, the
University of Bath in 2003 and the
University of Bristol in 2004.
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents won the 2001
Carnegie Medal for best children's
novel (awarded in 2002).
In 2003 Pratchett firmly reinforced his credentials as one of Britain's most loved authors, by joining
Charles Dickens as one of the only two authors with five books in the
BBC's
Big Read 'Top 100' (four of which were
Discworld novels). Pratchett was also the author with the most novels in the 'Top 200' (fifteen).
The first three
Discworld novels centring on the
Tiffany Aching 'trainee witch' character have each received the
Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book (in 2004, 2005 and 2007).
Fandom
Pratchett's
Discworld novels have led to dedicated conventions, the first in Manchester in 1996, then worldwide, often with the author as guest of honour. Publication of a new novel may also accompanied by an international book signing tour; queues have been known to stretch outside the bookshop and the author has continued to sign books well after the intended finishing time.
Writing
Pratchett has said that to write, you must read extensively, both inside and outside your chosen genre and to the point of "overflow".
The fantasy genre
Although in the past he's written in the sci-fi and horror genres, Pratchett now focuses almost entirely on fantasy, explaining "it is easier to bend the universe around the story". In the acceptance speech for his Carnegie Medal he said: 'Fantasy isn’t just about wizards and silly wands. It’s about seeing the world from new directions', pointing to J. K. Rowling's
Harry Potter novels and
The Lord of the Rings. In the same speech, he also acknowledged benefits of these works for the genre. He "believes he owes a debt to the science fiction/fantasy genre which he grew up out of" and dislikes the term "
magical realism" which is "like a polite way of saying you write fantasy and is more acceptable to certain people - and who, on the whole don't care that much." He is annoyed that fantasy is "unregarded as a literary form" because it "is the oldest form of fiction"
On
31 July 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".
Pratchett has both an admiring and critical view of
J. R. R. Tolkien.
Style and major themes
Pratchett is known for a distinctive writing style that includes a number of characteristic hallmarks. One example is his use of footnotes,
which usually involve a comic departure from the narrative or a commentary on the narrative.
Pratchett has a tendency to avoid using chapters, arguing in a
Book Sense interview that "life doesn't happen in regular chapters, nor do movies, and
Homer didn't write in chapters", adding "I'm blessed if I know what function they serve in books for adults."
However, there have been exceptions;
Going Postal and
Making Money are divided into chapters, as are the young adult books about Tiffany Aching.
Characters, place names and titles in Pratchett's books often contain puns, allusions and culture references.
Some characters are parodies of well-known characters: for example, Pratchett's character (Genghis)
Cohen the Barbarian is a parody of
Conan the Barbarian and
Genghis Khan, and his character
Leonard of Quirm is a parody of
Leonardo da Vinci.
Another hallmark of his writing is the use of capitalised dialogue without quotation marks, used to indicate the character of Death communicating telepathically into a character's mind. Pratchett also made up a new colour,
octarine, a 'fluorescent greenish-yellow-purple', which is the eighth colour in the
Discworld spectrum - the colour of magic.
Influences
Pratchett makes no secret of outside influences on his work: they're a major source of his humour. He imports numerous characters from classic literature, popular culture and ancient history,
always adding an unexpected twist. Pratchett is a crime novel fan, which is reflected in frequent appearances of the
Ankh-Morpork City Watch in the
Discworld series.
An example is the character
Susan Sto Helit.
Pratchett's earliest inspirations were
The Wind in the Willows by
Kenneth Grahame, and the works of
Isaac Asimov and
Arthur C. Clarke.
G. K. Chesterton, and
Mark Twain.
Publishing history
While Pratchett UK publishing history has remained quite stable, his international relationships with publishers has been turbulent (especially in America). He changed German publishers after an advertisement for
Maggi soup was placed into the middle of the German language printing of
Pyramids.
Bibliography
The Discworld series
» See the Discworld article for the list of Discworld novels.
Pratchett's
Discworld series is a
humorous and often
satirical sequence of stories set in the colourful fantasy
world of Discworld. The series contains various '
story arcs' (or 'sub-series'), and a number of free-standing stories. All are set in an abundance of locations in the same detailed and unified world, such as the
Unseen University and 'Broken Drum'
pub in the twin city Ankh-Morpork, or places in the various continents, regions and countries on the Disc. Characters and locations reappear throughout the series, variously taking major and minor roles.
The Discworld itself is described as a large disc resting on the backs of four giant elephants, all supported by the giant turtle
Great A'Tuin as it swims its way through space. The books are essentially in chronological order,
The subject of many of the novels in Pratchett's
Discworld series is a
parody of a real-world subject such as
film making,
newspaper publishing,
rock and roll music,
religion,
philosophy,
Egyptian history,
Australia, university politics,
trade unions, and the financial world. Pratchett has also included further parody as a feature within the stories, including such subjects as
Ingmar Bergman films, numerous fiction,
science fiction and
fantasy characters, and various bureaucratic and ruling systems.
Other Discworld books
Pratchett has written or collaborated on a number of
Discworld books that are not novels in themselves but serve to accompany the series.
The Discworld Companion, written with
Stephen Briggs, is an encyclopedic guide to
Discworld. The third (and latest) edition was renamed
The New Discworld Companion, and was published in 2003. Briggs also collaborated with Pratchett on a series of fictional
Discworld "
mapps". The first,
The Discworld Mapp (1995), illustrated by
Stephen Player, comprises a large, comprehensive map of the
Discworld itself with a small booklet that contains short biographies of the Disc's prominent explorers and their discoveries. Three further "mapps", have been released, focusing on particular regions of the Disc: Ankh-Morpork, Lancre and Death's Domain. Briggs and Pratchett have also released several
Discworld diaries and, with
Tina Hannan,
Nanny Ogg's Cookbook (1999). The design of this
cookbook, illustrated by
Paul Kidby, was based on the traditional
Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, but with humorous recipes.
Collections of
Discworld-related art have also been released in book form.
The Pratchett Portfolio (1996) and
The Art of Discworld (2004) are collections of paintings of major
Discworld characters by
Paul Kidby, with details added by Pratchett on the character's origins.
In 2005, Pratchett's first book for very young children was
Where's My Cow?. Illustrated by
Melvyn Grant, this is a realisation of the short story
Sam Vimes reads to his child in
Thud!.
Science of Discworld
Pratchett has written three
Science of Discworld books in collaboration with Professor of mathematics
Ian Stewart and reproductive biologist
Jack Cohen, both of Warwick University:
The Science of Discworld (1999), (2002) and (2005).
All three books have chapters that alternate between fiction and non-fiction: the fictional chapters are set within the
Discworld, where
its characters observe, and experiment on, a universe with the same physics as ours. The non-fiction chapters (written by Stewart and Cohen) explain the science behind the fictional events.
In 1999, Pratchett appointed both Cohen and Stewart as "Honorary Wizards of the Unseen University" at the same ceremony at which the
University of Warwick awarded him an honorary degree.
Now We Are Sick written by Neil Gaiman and Stephen Jones includes the poem called "The Secret Book of the Dead" by Pratchett.
The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2007 includes an article by Pratchett about the process of writing fantasy.
Adaptations
Radio
Pratchett has had a number of radio adaptations on BBC Radio 4: The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic (on Woman's Hour), Only You Can Save Mankind, Guards! Guards!, Wyrd Sisters, Mort and Small Gods have all been dramatised as serials as was Night Watch in early 2008, and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents as a 90-minute play.
Theatre
Johnny and the Dead and 14 Discworld novels have been adapted as plays by Stephen Briggs and published in book form.
In addition, Lords & Ladies has been adapted for the stage by Irana Brown, and Pyramids was adapted for the stage by Suzi Holyoake in 1999 and had a week-long theatre run in the UK.
In 2002, an adaptation of Truckers was produced as a co-production between Harrogate Theatre, the Belgrade Theatre Coventry and Theatre Royal, Bury St. Edmunds. It was adapted by Bob Eaton, and directed by Rob Swain. The play toured to many venues in the UK between 15th March and 29th June 2002.
In 2004, an adaptation of Only You Can Save Mankind, a musical with music by Leighton James House and lyrics by Shaun McKenna, premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Television
Johnny and the Dead was made into a TV serial for Children's ITV on ITV, in 1995. In January 2006, BBC One aired a three-part adaptation of Johnny and the Bomb.
A two-part, feature-length version of Hogfather starring David Jason and the voice of Ian Richardson was first aired on Sky One in the United Kingdom in December 2006, and on ION Television in the USA in 2007. Pratchett was opposed to live action films about Discworld before because of his negative experience with Hollywood film makers.
He changed his opinion when he saw that the director Vadim Jean and producer Rod Brown were very enthusiastic and cooperative.
A two-part, feature-length adaptation of The Colour of Magic and its sequel The Light Fantastic aired during Easter 2008 on Sky One.
Truckers was adapted as a stop motion animation series for Thames Television by Cosgrove Hall Films. Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music were adapted as two animated cartoon series by Cosgrove Hall Films for Channel 4 in 1996; illustrated screenplays of these were published in 1998 and 1997 respectively.
Feature films
Pratchett has sold a number of his book rights, but so far no films have been made. The Wee Free Men is set to be directed by Sam Raimi but hasn't started filming. Director Terry Gilliam has announced in an interview with Empire magazine that he plans to adapt Good Omens
but as of 2007 this still needed funding. In 2001, DreamWorks also commissioned an adaptation of Truckers by Andrew Adamson and Joe Stillman but Pratchett believes that it won't be made until after "Shrek 17".
Comic books and graphic novels
Four graphic novels of Pratchett's work have been released. The first two, originally published in the US, were adaptations of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic and illustrated by Steven Ross (with Joe Bennett on the latter). The second two, published in the UK, were adaptations of Mort (subtitled A Discworld Big Comic) and Guards! Guards!, both illustrated by Graham Higgins and adapted by Stephen Briggs.
Role-playing games
GURPS Discworld (Steve Jackson Games, 1998) and GURPS Discworld Also (Steve Jackson Games, 2001) are role-playing source books which were written by Terry Pratchett and Phil Masters, which also offer insights into the workings of the Discworld. The first of these two books was re-released in September 2002 under the name of The Discworld Roleplaying Game, with art by Paul Kidby.
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 following are the more notable games:
The Colour of Magic, the first game based on the series, and so far the only one directly adapted from a Discworld novel. It was released in 1986 for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64.
Discworld, an animated "point-and-click" adventure game made by Teeny Weeny Games and Perfect 10 Productions in 1995.
, a sequel to Discworld developed by Perfect Entertainment in 1996. It was subtitled "Mortality Bytes!" in North America.
Discworld Noir is the first 3D game based on the Discworld series, and is both an example and parody of the film noir genre. The game was created by Perfect Entertainment and published by GT Interactive for both the PC and PlayStation in 1999. It was released only in Europe and Australia.
Internet Games
The world of Discworld is also featured in an online MUD, multi-user dungeon, and can be found at discworld.atuin.net. This game allows players to play humans in various guild within the universe that Terry Pratchett has created.
Works about Pratchett
A collection of essays about his writings is compiled in the book Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature, edited by Andrew M. Butler, Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn, published by Science Fiction Foundation in 2000 (ISBN 0903007010). A second, expanded edition was published by Old Earth Books in 2004 (ISBN 188296831X). Andrew M. Butler also wrote the Pocket Essentials Guide to Terry Pratchett published in 2001 (ISBN 1903047390). Writers Uncovered: Terry Pratchett is a biography for young readers by Vic Parker, published by Heinemann Library in 2006 (ISBN 0431906335).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Terry Pratchett'.
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