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Sir Terence David John Pratchett  OBE (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author, best known for the Discworld series of 41 comic fantasy novels published between 1983–2015, and for the apocalyptic comedy novel Good Omens (1990), which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman. His books have sold 100 million copies worldwide in 43 languages, and he was the UK’s best-selling author of the 1990s. During this period he became a household figure due to his prolific output, often self-deprecating humour in interviews, and his all-black public wardrobe topped with a black Borsalino[1] fedora. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest fantasy authors of all time, and one of the greatest English authors of the modern era.

Born in Beaconsfield, Pratchett published his first story at age 15, and left school two years later to start an apprenticeship in journalism. He remained in local journalism for the next 20 years, during which time he wrote a number of children’s stories under the pen names Uncle Jim and Patrick Kearns. His first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971, followed by The Dark Side of the Sun (1976) and Strata (1981). The first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, and by 1987 he was able to start writing full-time, putting out an average of two books a year until health problems in the 2000s forced him to slow his pace.

The Discworld series began as broad pastiche of fantasy and sword and sorcery, and some early critics dismissed it as low-brow. However, as it progressed, Pratchett's writing was noted for combining his trademark wit and wordplay with increasingly complex storytelling, parodies, and worldbuilding in a setting which reflected and often satirized the real world; since the 1990s there has been a growing body of academic work analysing the series and its exploration of topics such as morality, power, social criticism, and the human condition. He is credited with modernizing the fantasy genre by deconstructing and reinterpreting the cliches and stereotypes which were widespread in the genre during the 20th century, and his approach has led to the series being compared to social science fiction, and to Pratchett being described as a science fiction author.

Pratchett's writing has also had an influence beyond fiction; the Sam Vimes “Boots” theory of socioeconomic unfairness, from the Discworld novel Men at Arms (1993), gained prominence in the 2010s as a meme before giving its name to the Vimes Boots Index in 2022, and the first of The Science of Discworld books, which he co-wrote with Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, popularized the term lie-to-children.

In 2003, the BBC’s Big Read poll of Britain’s favourite novel featured fifteen Pratchett books in the top 200, more than any other author, and five – The Colour of Magic (1983), Mort (1987), Guards! Guards! (1989), Good Omens (1990), and Night Watch (2002) – placed in the top 100, tying him with Charles Dickens for the most. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours.

In December 2007, Pratchett announced that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He subsequently campaigned to both raise awareness of the disease and support changes in legislation around the right to die, receiving criticism for the latter. He became a patron of the Alzheimer's Research Trust – now Alzheimer's Research UK (ARUK) – and filmed three television programme chronicling his experiences with the condition for the BBC. He died on 12 March 2015, aged 66; his final novel, the Discworld novel The Shepherd’s Crown, was published five months later. His daughter, the writer Rhianna Pratchett, was named his literary heir and has stated that no further Discworld books will be authorized.

Terry Prathett Bibliography

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The English author Terry Pratchett (1948 - 2015) wrote over 80 books, including the 41 comic fantasy novels set on the Discworld.

Discworld[2]

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Main Article: Discworld Bibliography

Novels

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No. Title Published Subseries Notes
1 The Colour of Magic 1983 Rincewind 93rd in the Big Read
2 The Light Fantastic 1986 Rincewind Continues from The Colour of Magic
3 Equal Rites 1987 Witches
4 Mort 1987 Death 65th in the Big Read
5 Sourcery 1988 Rincewind
6 Wyrd Sisters 1988 Witches 135th in the Big Read
7 Pyramids 1989 Standalone British Science Fiction Award winner, 1989
8 Guards! Guards! 1989 City Watch 69th in the Big Read
9 Eric 1990 Rincewind Published in a larger format and fully illustrated by Josh Kirby
10 Moving Pictures 1990 Industrial Revolution
11 Reaper Man 1991 Death 126th in the Big Read
12 Witches Abroad 1991 Witches 197th in the Big Read
13 Small Gods 1992 Standalone 102nd in the Big Read
14 Lords and Ladies 1992 Witches
15 Men at Arms 1993 City Watch 148th in the Big Read
16 Soul Music 1994 Death 151st in the Big Read
17 Interesting Times 1994 Rincewind
18 Maskerade 1995 Witches
19 Feet of Clay 1996 City Watch
20 Hogfather 1996 Death 137th in the Big Read; British Fantasy Award nominee, 1997
21 Jingo 1997 City Watch
22 The Last Continent 1998 Rincewind
23 Carpe Jugulum 1998 Witches
24 The Fifth Elephant 1999 City Watch 153rd in the Big Read; Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 2000
25 The Truth 2000 Industrial Revolution 193rd in the Big Read
26 Thief of Time 2001 Death 152nd in the Big Read; Locus Award nominee, 2002
27 The Last Hero 2001 Rincewind Published in a larger format and fully illustrated by Paul Kidby
28 The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents 2001 Standalone A YA (young adult or children's) Discworld book; winner of the 2001 Carnegie Medal
29 Night Watch 2002 City Watch Received the Prometheus Award in 2003; came 73rd in the Big Read; Locus Award nominee, 2003
30 The Wee Free Men 2003 Tiffany Aching The second YA Discworld book; also published in larger format and fully illustrated by Stephen Player
31 Monstrous Regiment 2003 Industrial Revolution 2004 nominee for Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. The title is a reference to The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women
32 A Hat Full of Sky 2004 Tiffany Aching The third YA Discworld book
33 Going Postal 2004 Moist von Lipwig Locus and Nebula Awards nominee, 2005
34 Thud! 2005 City Watch Locus Award nominee, 2006
35 Wintersmith 2006 Tiffany Aching The fourth YA book.
36 Making Money 2007 Moist von Lipwig Locus Award winner, Nebula nominee, 2008
37 Unseen Academicals 2009 Industrial Revolution Locus Award Nominee, 2010
38 I Shall Wear Midnight 2010 Tiffany Aching The fifth YA book, Andre Norton winner, 2010
39 Snuff 2011 City Watch The third-fastest-selling hardback adult-readership novel since records began in the UK, selling 55,000 copies in the first three days.
40 Raising Steam 2013 Moist von Lipwig
41 The Shepherd's Crown 2015 Tiffany Aching The sixth YA book, Completed mid-2014 and published posthumously in 2015

Children's books

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Short stories

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  • "Troll Bridge" (1991) (published in After The King: Stories in Honour of J.R.R. Tolkien)
  • "Theatre of Cruelty" (1993) (published in W. H. Smith Bookcase, revised and expanded version published in The Wizards of Odd, 1996)
  • "The Sea and Little Fishes" (1998) (published in Legends)
  • "The Ankh-Morpork National Anthem" (1999) (collected in A Blink of the Screen)
  • "Death and What Comes Next" (2002) (published online)
  • "Medical Notes" (2004) (published in Once More* with Footnotes, later collected in A Blink of the Screen)
  • "A Collegiate Casting-Out of Devilish Devices" (2005) (published in The Times Higher Education Supplement, later collected in A Blink of the Screen)

Tie-in books

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The Science of Discworld

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Written with Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart

Map Books

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Written with Stephen Briggs

Other

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Other fiction

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Novels and Novellas

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  1. Truckers (1988)

  2. Diggers (1990)   3. Wings (1990)

  1. Only You Can Save Mankind (1992)

  2. Johnny and the Dead (1993)   3. Johnny and the Bomb (1996)

  1. The Long Earth (2012)

  2. The Long War (2013)   3. The Long Mars (2014)

  4. The Long Utopia (2015)   5. The Long Cosmos (2016)

Short story collections

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  • Once More* with Footnotes (2004) (edited by Priscilla Olson and Sheila M. Perry)
  • A Blink of the Screen (2012)
  • Dragons at Crumbling Castle (2014)
  • The Witch's Vacuum Cleaner (2016)
  • Father Christmas' Fake Beard (2017)
  • The Time-travelling Caveman (2020)
  • A Stroke of the Pen: The Lost Stories (2023)

Short stories

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  • "The Hades Business" (1963)
  • "Twenty Pence with Envelope and Seasonal Greetings" (1987)
  • "Final Reward" (1988)
  • "Sphinx" (1988)
  • "Turntables of the Night" (1989) (published in The Flying Sorcerers, 1997)
  • "# ifdefDEBUG + "world/enough" + "time"" (1990) (published in Digital Dreams)
  • "Hollywood Chickens" (1990) (published in More Tales from the Forbidden Planet)
  • "The Secret Book of the Dead" (Poem, 1994) (published in Now We Are Sick)

Non-fiction and miscellaneous

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  1. ^ O'Connell, Sanjida (2009-10-31). "Terry Pratchett: Fighting to keep the fantasy alive". New Scientist. Archived from the original on 2016-04-13. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
  2. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20141006140519/https://colinsmythe.co.uk/terrypages/tpindex.htm. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)