Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes: The Official Biography

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The biography will be published in September. Publisher Transworld said it would move from Pratchett being told at the age of six by his headteacher that he would never amount to anything, through the writing of the bestselling Discworld series, his winning the Carnegie medal and his knighthood for services to literature. Wilkins will also cover how Pratchett coped with the challenges of Alzheimer’s. Wilkins has many advantages over most biographers, having not only known his subject well, but taken down notes while he was alive for his projected memoir. The result, at times, is like a ventriloquist act, with Pratchett's voice and personality emerging loud and clear. The Herald 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Terry was working on an autobiography, which was never completed—but contrary to the hard-drive containing all of his unpublished fiction, which, in accordance with his final wishes, was ritually destroyed by a steamroller, Rob took it upon himself to finish what Terry had started.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. Similar qualms on Terry’s part affected the price paid up front for Good Omens, his 1990 collaboration with Neil Gaiman. During 1985, Neil had shown Terry a file containing 5,282 words exploring a scenario in which Richmal Crompton’s William Brown had somehow become the Antichrist. Terry loved it, and the concept stayed in his mind. A couple of years later, he rang Neil to ask him if he had done any more work on it. Neil, who had been spending that time thinking about his series The Sandman, for DC Comics, said he hadn’t really given it another thought. Terry said: “Well, I know what happens next, so either you can sell me the idea or we can write it together.” Neil knew straight away which of those options he preferred. As he said: “It was like Michelangelo ringing up and saying, ‘Do you fancy doing a ceiling?’” And I listened to some music that was new to me after reading that Neil Gaiman was singing “the first lines of ‘Shoehorn with Teeth’ – his and Terry’s favourite They Might Be Giants song.”

Monday, 24th January , 2022 A LIFE WITH FOOTNOTES – ANNOUNCING THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY OF TERRY PRATCHETT Transworld Publishers are thrilled to announce the publication of Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes, the official biography of Sir Terry Pratchett, written by Rob Wilkins, his former assistant, friend and now head of the author’s literary estate. At the time of his death in 2015, Terry was working on his finest story yet – his own. 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 rThe joy of this biography . . . is that it spins magic from mundanity in precisely the way Pratchett himself did. The Telegraph

Transworld managing director Larry Finlay says: ‘ A Life with Footnotes captures the genius that was Terry Pratchett, with warmth, poignancy, and great good humour - and with no small amount of love. It's an intimate, engaging and revealing portrait of one of the UK’s most loved and most missed authors, that only Rob Wilkins could have written. It is a masterclass in great biographical writing.’ There was Terry Pratchett who had to be bribed by his mother to do some reading until one day he found a book that enthralled him enough to start reading everything — and eventually create stories that similarly enthralled millions of readers. There was Pratchett the journalist and the nuclear industry press man, the guy who loved tinkering with electronics (and who had 6 monitor screens because - of course - there just wasn’t room for 8) and building greenhouses and raising goats. The man who from the age of 20 was the most married man in the world. The Terry who forged his own sword after being knighted for his contribution to literature (in your face, literary snobs). The Pratchett who could write two books a year because he took his job seriously, and yet have every book be amazing enough as though he’d spent years polishing it. A truly wonderful and heartbreaking tale, filled with memories typed by Pratchett himself and lovingly woven with those of writer and ‘best PA in the world’ (read the book), Rob Wilkins. The unique humour and storytelling that carries you along in all of the adventure’s in Prattchett’s fiction is present throughout this biography which is filled with characters and situations as colourful and as rich as those from his books, making this a really enjoyable read. Then, of course, we come to his writing career and just knowing where certain details came from … like the bees … *tears up* 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.PRESS RELEASE: TRANSWORLD TO PUBLISH A STROKE OF THE PEN: A COLLECTION OF REDISCOVERED SHORT STORIES Lively and affectionate, this is not a critical biography, but nor is it sycophantic. It shows Pratchett as brilliant and generous, but also cantakerous, with a ruthless sense of the ridiculous. i News It’s a great biography, but be prepared to feel some raw pain if you care about Terry Pratchett at all, because by the end of it you’ll care about Terry as a person and not just an absolutely brilliant writer. Amazing story of an extraordinary person, who gave us the magical Discworld. The life of sir Terry Pratchet Writen by his assistant and friend, Rob Wilkins, we are taken on an inspiring, hilarious and emotional journey throughout Terry's entire life.

At six years old, our friend and favourite writer of books Terry Pratchett 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. And yes, it's the signed edition of a limited number. It also received special binding and the following additions: a postcard with a TP doodle and one of the most famous quote from the Discworld series, a doodle by Rob Wilkins, TP's gilded sigil (the honeybee) and more.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. And what a job he's done. Terry had begun making notes for an autobiography but sadly did not live long enough to write it. In his absence Rob Wilkins has done an absolutely marvellous job of telling Terry's life story from his childhood when he didn't enjoy reading to the powerhouse who regularly gave us two sublime books a year. What makes this book particularly special is the way that Wilkins weaves together personal anecdotes, interviews with Pratchett's family and friends, and insights into the creative process that led to some of his most beloved works. Through Wilkins' careful curation of photographs, letters, and other memorabilia, readers gain a sense of Pratchett as both a gifted writer and a complex human being, with all the flaws and foibles that come with that. Transworld managing director Larry Finlay said that “only Wilkins” could have written the “intimate, engaging and revealing portrait of one of the UK’s most loved and most missed authors”.

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. There are lots of facts, many culled from the unfinished autobiography that Pratchett was dictating during his last years, plus copious anecdotes that the omnipresent PA recalled. Given the nature of their professional relationship and friendship, there is also a small element of memoir on Wilkins part too. As promised in the subtitle of the book, there are copious footnotes. These are not academic references, but more like those of the Discworld novels—further comments of the author on the event in the text. Indeed there is no bibliography, so if you are in search of analysis you will be disappointed.Starts slow, and somewhat off for me, as I had to adjust my image of Terry Pratchett with the author's extensive experience of same ;) One thing's for sure, Wilkins is not sugar-coating things - he respects - and knew - Pratchett well enough not to even hint at lionizing him, and for that he has my respect. Does it make the book harder to read? Yep, absolutely. But in the end, it's also absolutely worth it. Heart breaking and funny . . . sometimes joyfully, sometimes painfully, intimate . . . it is wonderful to have this closeup picture of the writer's working life. Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Observer