Published: 20/07/2023
Penned by one of the people who knew him best, this official biography of the storytelling genius that was Terry Pratchett draws on both Pratchett's own unpublished notes and interviews from close friends and family to create a resounding tribute to a unique literary talent.
'People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way around.'
At the time of his death in 2015, award-winning and bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett was working on his finest story yet - his own.
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.
Following his untimely death from Alzheimer's disease, the mantle of completing Terry's memoir was passed to Rob Wilkins, his former assistant, friend and now head of the author's literary estate.
Drawing on his own extensive memories, along with those of Terry's family, friends, fans and colleagues, Rob recounts Terry's extraordinary story - from his early childhood to the literary phenomenon that his Discworld series became; and how he met and coped with the challenges that 'The Embuggerance' of Alzheimer's brought with it.
Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
ISBN: 9781529176902
Number of pages: 528
Weight: 380 g
Dimensions: 198 x 127 x 32 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'Always readable, illuminating and honest. It made me miss the real Terry.' - Neil Gaiman
'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
'The joy of this biography.... is that it spins magic from mundanity in precisely the way Pratchett himself did.' - The Telegraph
'No one, after Pratchett's wife, Lyn, and daughter, Rhianna, knew the author as well as Wilkins. I wept through the last 20 pages - beautifully done - charting Pratchett's decline in a way that is both sensitive and unsparing.' - The Times
'Fond, funny and conveys a pitch-perfect sense of how Pratchett managed to take the elements of his 1950s working-class childhood... and turn it into a universe of limitless richness and invention.' - Mail on Sunday
'The friendship and affection between the pair shines through every page... of course, [Pratchett] fans will love the book... and even casual readers will delight in tales of his idiosyncratic passions.' - Independent
'A biography almost as funny and perceptive as one of Terry's novels... a rich, deeply affectionate portrait of a unique personality... it's a joy to see the much-missed author spring back into technicolour life in this fascinating and deeply moving tribute.' - Daily Express
'A moving and acutely observed account... Pratchett's magical mind, and dementia, by the man who knew him best.' - The Sunday Times
'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
'Both more and less than a biography... full of insights and revelations, in many ways the sort of thing Pratchett might have written about himself, proud of what has been done, honest about the process... written with intelligence and compassion.' - Christopher Priest
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