Early life
Pratchett was born in 1948 in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, England, the only child of David and Eileen Pratchett, of Hay-on-Wye. His family moved to Bridgwater, Somerset briefly in 1957, following which he passed his eleven plus exam in 1959, earning him a place in John Hampden Grammar School. Pratchett described himself as a "non-descript 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 lacked the necessary mathematical skills. However, this led to an interest in reading British and American science fiction. In turn, this led to attending science fiction conventions from about 1963/4, which stopped when he got his first job a few years later. His early reading included the works of H. G. Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle and "every book you really ought to read" which he now regards as "getting an education".
At age 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 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 where he wrote, amongst other things, several stories for the
Children's Circle section under the name Uncle Jim. One of these episodic stories contains named characters from The Carpet People. These stories are currently part of a project by the Bucks Free Press to make them available online. While on day release he finished his A-Level in English and took a proficiency course for journalists.
Early career
Pratchett had his first breakthrough 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 had written a manuscript,
The Carpet People. Bander van Duren and his business partner, Colin Smythe (of Colin Smythe Ltd Publishers) 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.
After various positions in journalism, in 1980 Pratchett became Press Officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board in an area which covered three 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, U.S., and said he would "write a book about his experiences, if he thought anyone would believe it".
The first
Discworld novel
The Colour of Magic was published in 1983 by Colin Smythe in hardback. 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 Colour of Magic as a serial in six parts, after it was published by Corgi in 1985 and later
Equal Rites. Subsequently, rights for hardback were taken by the publishing house Victor Gollancz, which remained Pratchett's publisher until 1997, and Smythe became Pratchett's agent. Pratchett was the first fantasy author published by Gollancz.
Pratchett gave up working for the CEGB in 1987 after finishing the fourth
Discworld novel,
Mort, to focus fully on and make his living through writing. His sales increased quickly and many of his books occupied top places on the best-seller list. According to
The Times, Pratchett was the top selling and highest earning UK author in 1996. Some of his books have been published by Doubleday, another Transworld imprint. In the US, Pratchett is published by HarperCollins.
According to the
Bookseller's Pocket Yearbook from 2005, 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). His sales in the UK alone are more than 2.5 million copies a year.
Current life
Terry Pratchett married his wife Lyn in 1968, and they moved to Rowberrow, Somerset in 1970. Their daughter Rhianna Pratchett, who is also a writer, was born there in 1976. In 1993 the family moved to a village north west of Salisbury, Wiltshire, where they currently live. He lists his recreations as "writing, walking, computers, life".
He describes himself as a [[secular humanism|humanist]] and is a Distinguished Supporter of the [[British Humanist Association]]. and an Honorary Associate of the [[National Secular Society]].
Pratchett is well known for his penchant for wearing large, black fedora 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 interest in astronomy since childhood has led him to build an observatory in his garden.
On 31 December 2008 it was announced that Pratchett was to be knighted (as a Knight Bachelor) in the Queen's 2009 New Year Honours. He formally received the accolade at Buckingham Palace on 18 February 2009. Afterwards he said, "You can't ask a fantasy writer not to want a knighthood. You know, for two pins I'd get myself a horse and a sword." In late 2009, he did make himself a sword, with the help of his friends. He told a Times Higher Education interviewer that At the end of last year I made my own sword. I dug out the iron ore from a field about 10 miles away - I was helped by interested friends. We lugged 80 kilos of iron ore, used clay from the garden and straw to make a kiln, and lit the kiln with wildfire by making it with a bow.' Colin Smythe, his long-term friend and agent, donated some pieces of meteoric iron - 'thunderbolt iron has a special place in magic and we put that in the smelt, and I remember when we sawed the iron apart it looked like silver. Everything about it I touched, handled and so forth ... And everything was as it should have been, it seemed to me.
On 15 September 2010, Pratchett along with 54 other public figures signed an open letter, published in
The Guardian newspaper, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI being accorded "the honour of a state visit" to the UK, arguing that he has led and condoned global abuses of human rights. The letter says "The state of which the pope is head has also resisted signing many major human rights treaties and has formed its own treaties ("concordats") with many states which negatively affect the human rights of citizens of those states". Co-signees included Stephen Fry, Richard Dawkins, Philip Pullman, Jonathan Miller and Ken Follet.
Alzheimer's disease
In August 2007, Pratchett was misdiagnosed as having had a minor stroke in 2004 or 2005, which was believed to have damaged the right side of his brain. While his motor skills had been affected, the observed damage had not impaired his ability to write. On 11 December 2007, Pratchett posted online that he had been newly diagnosed with a very rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's disease, which he said "lay behind this year's phantom 'stroke'." He has a rare form of the disease called posterior cortical atrophy, in which areas at the back of the brain begin to shrink and shrivel. 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 has 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 will only entertain such offers from "very high-end experts in brain chemistry." Discussing his diagnosis at the Bath Literature Festival, Pratchett revealed that he now found it too difficult to write dedications when signing books.In March 2008, Pratchett announced he was donating US$1,000,000 (about £494,000 at the time) to the Alzheimer's Research Trust, saying that he had spoken to at least three brain tumour (cancer) survivors yet he had 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 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 $1,000,000.
In April 2008, the BBC began working with Pratchett to make a two-part documentary series based on his illness. The first part of
Terry Pratchett: Living With Alzheimer's was broadcast on BBC Two on 4 February 2009, drawing 2.6m viewers and a 10.4% audience share. The second, broadcast on 11 February 2009, drew 1.72m viewers and a 6.8% audience share. 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.
On 8 June 2008, news reports indicated that Pratchett had an experience, which he described as: "It is just possible that once you have got past all the gods that we have created with big beards and many human traits, just beyond all that, on the other side of physics, there just may be the ordered structure from which everything flows" and "I don't actually believe in anyone who could have put that in my head". He went into further detail on
Front Row, in which he was asked if this was a shift in his beliefs: "A shift in me in the sense I heard my father talk to me when I was in the garden one day. But I'm absolutely certain that what I heard was my memories of my father. An engram, or something in my head...This is not about God, but somewhere around there is where gods come from."
On 26 November 2008, Pratchett met the Prime Minister Gordon Brown and asked for an increase in dementia research funding.
Since August 2008 Pratchett has been testing out a prototype device to address his condition. Despite some improvements in his condition, the ability of the device to alter the course of the illness has been met with scepticism.
In an article published mid 2009, Pratchett stated that he wishes to commit 'assisted suicide' (although he dislikes that term) before his disease progresses to a critical point. Pratchett was selected to give the 2010 BBC Richard Dimbleby Lecture, entitled
Shaking Hands With Death, which was broadcast on 1 February 2010. Pratchett introduced his lecture on the topic of assisted death, but the main text was read by his friend Tony Robinson because of difficulties Pratchett has with reading — a result of his condition.
Due to his condition, Pratchett currently writes either by dictating to his assistant, Rob Wilkins, or by using Speech recognition software.