Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes: The Official Biography

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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. Then, of course, we come to his writing career and just knowing where certain details came from … like the bees … *tears up*

It is therefore no surprise that it was around that time (December 2007) when the idea of writing an autobiography actually took shape (he had always dismissed it before). Sir Terry even started jutting down quite a bit from which Rob Wilkins was taking cues here and there for this book. This biography was written by someone who knew him personally, and I must say it was by far the best biography I've ever read.Look after Lyn, please. Have those fine pieces of jewellery cast to my design and give them with my love. Choose a gift every Christmas and birthday. Send flowers. Have a big dinner each year, more if necessary or if a celebration is required, and raise a brandy to my memory and to happy days. After Terry was diagnosed with Posterior Cortical Atrophy, a rare form of Alzheimer’s disease, in 2007, at the cruelly early age of 59, I began to accompany him at public appearances, reading for him when he no longer could, helping him through interviews on stage as “keeper of the anecdote”. We became, of necessity, a sort of double act. Pratchett fans will no doubt be thrilled to learn more about his early days as a journalist and his groundbreaking work in the world of comic fantasy, as well as his later struggles with Alzheimer's disease and his tireless advocacy for assisted dying. But even readers who are less familiar with Pratchett's oeuvre will find much to appreciate in this book, which offers a touching and nuanced portrait of a man who made a profound impact on the world around him. His 25th Discworld novel, The Truth, looks at the realities of working at a newspaper and is clearly informed by his years spent as a journalist. A Life with Footnotes*, however, shows how the harrowing and humorous experiences Pratchett had across those years spill into all his books, not only that one; into the methodical approach to writing that meant he regularly produced several novels a year, and into his outlook. Writing was mostly what he did. There isn't a huge amount to sustain a biography in the usual way of things. There is, however, the Embuggerance: this brilliant author's horrifically early slide into dementia via a particularly virulent form of Alzheimers that took away his memories, his ability to make connections, his words.

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 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 r This book is a wonderful insight into the life and mind of the late Sir Terry Pratchett. We follow his whole life story, through early years as a reporter onto his highly successful Discworld writing and ending with, well, The End. The author Rob Wilkins worked very closely with Pratchett for many years and it was wonderful reading his views and insights, and this, combined with quotes and notes from Terry himself in years past, really help deliver a personal experience. Reading this often felt like being in the room with the pair of them, so much so that I felt I should offer them a drink when pausing to make a cuppa. 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.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 reshelving and repairing books on a voluntary basis. In return, the unspoken agreement was that he could borrow an unlimited number of books from the library.

I heard Terry call up: ‘Come on, what have you done with it?’ I went down to him. ‘What have I done with what?’ He was staring directly down at his keyboard. ‘The “S”. You’ve taken the “S”. Where is it?’ I was mystified. I went and stood beside him and looked. The letter S was on the keyboard, in between the letters A and D, as usual. I leaned forward and punched it. He looked at me and held my gaze. There was anxiety in his eyes. How frightening that must have been for him—his known world suddenly and inexplicably not making sense, utterly disorienting signals emanating from his computer keyboard, of all the familiar places.“ He left it a bit late, of course, and he would think about that ruefully near the end, when time was running out and we were losing him at 100mph. 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. Nejsem zbožňujícím fanouškem Terryho knih, nejsem ani občasným fanouškem Terryho knih. Sama sobě si neustále vemlouvám to, že jsem ho chytila za špatný konec. Naštěstí nejsem jediná, kdo se k tomuto názoru přiklání. Po Životě v poznámkách pod čarou si troufám tvrdit, že jsem zbožňující fanynkou obrovského srdcaře, který dýchal pro fantastiku do posledního dechu … 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.Next, I learned that, “Terry used to describe himself as ‘horizontally wealthy,” meaning that money hadn’t changed the person that he was, he could just afford to buy more things. However, he made some interesting choices, “instead of a Delorean DMC-12, Terry bought a shepherd’s hut,” which is “where [he] had the idea for the character of Tiffany Aching.”

I’ve read almost all of his books (no, I still haven’t been able to read the last Discworld book — and after reading about how it was written, in the last months of Terry being Terry, I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to do that). I can quote him for hours and hours at length. I’ve seen every screen adaptation of his works. And yet I still didn’t know much about the person my literary hero was until I read this book. So I thank you Rob for this wonderful book. I wept at the beginning. I wept at the end. I cried for all the characters I'll miss and those I never got to meet.Everyone who is a Discworld fan has their favourite character. I have too many to mention but I'd like to mention The Luggage because that is the point (in the very first Discworld "The Colour of Magic") that I fell in love with all things Pratchett.