Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld series, dies aged 66

Author of more than 70 books, who had early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, dies at his home, his publishers have announced

Sir Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld comic fantasy series of novels, has died aged 66.

His publishers, Transworld, announced the news “with immeasurable sadness”. Managing director Larry Finlay, said: “The world has lost one of its brightest, sharpest minds.”

The author of more than 70 books died at his home “with his cat sleeping on his bed, surrounded by his family” earlier on Thursday.

Pratchett, who had early onset Alzheimer’s disease, leaves his wife, Lyn, and their daughter, Rhianna.

He had, said Finlay, “enriched the planet like few before him”. He added: “All who read him know Discworld was his vehicle to satirise this world: he did so brilliantly, with great skill, enormous humour and constant invention.”

“Terry faced his Alzheimer’s disease (an ‘embuggerance’, as he called it), publicly and bravely. Over the last few years, it was his writing that sustained him. His legacy will endure for decades to come.”

He was diagnosed with PCA (posterior cortical atrophy), a progressive, degenerative condition involving the loss and dysfunction of brain cells, in 2007. He spoke openly about his condition and campaigned for greater awareness, battling it “with his trademark determination and creativity”, said Finlay.

He continued to write and completed his last book, a new Discworld novel, in the summer of 2014 before succumbing to the final stages of the disease.

He was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 new year’s honours. He received the World Fantasy award for life achievement in 2010. In 1996, he was the top-selling and highest-earning author.

Pratchett made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust and filmed a television programme chronicling his experiences with the disease for the BBC.

Four years ago he featured in a documentary about suicide in which he followed a man with motor neurone disease to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland. Asked why he wanted to make the film, Pratchett said he was appalled at the state of the law.

“The government here has always turned its back on it and I was ashamed that British people had to drag themselves to Switzerland, at considerable cost, in order to get the services that they were hoping for.”

After his diagnosis, he urged people to “keep things cheerful”, adding: “We are taking it fairly philosophically down here” and predicting he had time for “at least a few more books yet”.

Born in Beaconsfield, he published his first short story aged 13, and later began work as a journalist for the Bucks Free Press newspaper. He later became a press officer for the Central Electricity Generation Board in 1983.

His first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971, and his first Discworld novel (The Colour of Magic) was published in 1983.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/12/terry-pratchett-author-of-the-discworld-series-dies-aged-66


RIP Terry, you have given us much pleasure.

Buggrit. Millenium hand and shrimp. What duck?

Does not compute. Infinite loop.

Out of cheese error!




RIP terry

rip a great story teller....

sad great author RIP

SOD YOU, THEN, Death said.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic

RIP to a truly great writer. For those of you interested, read his non-fiction book called A Slip of the Keyboard. Fascinating stuff especially when he talks about his illness.

My eldest daughter got me on to Pratchett, it's not my kind of genre, but it really made me laugh.

“It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It’s called living.”

“So much universe, and so little time.”

“It’s still magic even if you know how it’s done.” — A Hat Full of Sky

“She was already learning that if you ignore the rules people will, half the time, quietly rewrite them so that they don’t apply to you.” — Equal Rites

“It’s not worth doing something unless you were doing something that someone, somewhere, would much rather you weren’t doing.”

“Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.”


Honestly he could almost have written my code to live by...

Sure Vic will appreciate
“Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.” — Jingo

I loved the fact he was so irreverent and said things that were completely rebellious in such a clever way that the authorities didn't even notice how rebellious he was!

risingsun wrote:My eldest daughter got me on to Pratchett, it's not my kind of genre, but it really made me laugh.

me either but I read them all including the children's books and this last book was a collection of essays and speeches he gave. a wonderful storyteller. I know of no higher praise but then I'm biased in this area

Great Author and wonderful man, he will be missed.