Terry Pratchett

Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett (Beaconsfield, April 28, 1948-Broad Chalke, March 12, 2015) was a British fantasy and science fiction writer. His best-known works correspond to the series of the Mundodisco ( Discworld ). In addition, he wrote YA novels, short stories, and helped write scripts for television adaptations of his novels. More than 85 million copies of his books have been sold in more than 35 languages.

Biography

He was born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, in 1948. At the age of 11 he entered High Wycombe Technical School, in whose student magazine he published, at the age of 13, his first story, entitled The Hades Business . Two years later it would be published for commercial sale. He oriented his studies to journalism. He left school in 1965 to work for Bucks Free Press and passed the National Council course for the Training of Journalists. In that same year she would write his second short story, The Night Dweller .

In 1971 his first book was published, called The Carpet People, which, although few in number, received good reviews. Some described the quality of the work as extraordinary. Later, he was followed by The Dark Side of the Sun in 1976 and Strata in 1981. He left Bucks Free Press for Western Daily Press on September 28, 1970 and returned to the previous one in 1972, already as deputy director. A year later he left again, this time for the Bath Chronicle. At this time he made a series of comic strips for which he will not go down in history.

In 1981 he became a public relations manager at a nuclear power plant (the company he worked for, currently PowerGen, had responsibility for three nuclear power plants), just before the disaster at Three Mile Island. This was precisely his work when he wrote his first novel about the Discworld: The Color of Magic (1983). The Discworld Reef (Discworld), a fantasy saga set in a hilarious world that parodies ours, is the set of novels that has brought it international fame.

In 1986 Fantastic Light was published, a continuation of the previous one. With the popularity of the man in the hat increasing by the minute, in 1987 he decided to dedicate himself solely to writing. Equal Rites (1987), Mort (1987) and Wizard (1988) would be the next novels to appear. That same year he signed a new contract for six more novels (not necessarily Discworld) and, from that moment on, he did not stop writing.

Terry Pratchett at Worldcon 2005 in Glasgow, August 2005.

A prolific author, Pratchett wrote the following Discworld novels in record time: Witchcraft (1988), Pyramids (1989), Guards! Guards? (1989), Eric (1990), Action Images (1990), The Reaper (1991), Traveling Witches (1991), Minor Gods (1992), Lords and Ladies (1992), Men at Arms (1993), Soul Music (1994), Interesting Times (1994), Masquerade (1995), Clay Feet (1996), Papá Puerco (1996), Voto a braíos! (1997), The country at the end of the world (1998), Carpe Jugulum (1998), The Fifth Elephant (1999), The Truth (2000), Thief of Time (2001), The Last Hero (2001), The Amazing Mauricio and His Wise Rodents (2001), Night Watch (2002), The little free men (The wee free men) (2003), Monstrous regiment (2003), A hat from heaven (2004), Letters in the matter (2004), Zap! (2005), Wintersmith (2006), Money at large (2007), El Atlético invisible (2009), I Shall Wear Midnight (20 10) and Snuff (2011). He also published three volumes of The Science of Discworld in collaboration with Ian Stewart, a mathematician and popular popular author, and Jack Cohen, a biologist. and collaborator of writers in the creation of plausible aliens.

Special mention deserves the Exodus of the Gnomes trilogy (not related to the Discworld), whose titles are Truckers (1989), Diggers (1989) and The Ship (1990).

In 1998 he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on the Queen's birthday in recognition of services to literature (though he initially thought it was a joke). The following year he received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from the University of Warwick and, in 2001, the same honorary degree from the University of Portsmouth. As a curiosity, it can be commented that, at the inauguration ceremony of the University of Warwick, he himself replied by making Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen doctors of the Invisible University, who jointly wrote the novel The Science of Discworld. At the 2009 New Year's celebrations he was also knighted.

Terry Pratchett announced on December 11, 2007, that he had premature Alzheimer's disease. However, he announced that he would face the disease because he thought that "there is still time to write at least a few more books."

The writer stressed in his ad that it wasn't just "I'm not dead." Although he used his characteristic irony by saying “of course, I will be dead in the future, like everyone else. For me, maybe later than you think." According to his statement, this case of Alzheimer's was a "very rare" version of the disease. The author mentioned a "phantom blow" received in the past that had surfaced. Pratchett said he took this issue "philosophically" and "mildly optimistic."

Terry Pratchett died on March 12, 2015 at his home near Stonehenge in Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, where he lived with his wife, Lyn, and daughter, Rhianna Pratchett, also a writer.

Works

About Mundodisco

Sorted in order of appearance and reading.

• The color of magic - The Colour of Magic
• Fantastic light - The Light Fantastic
• Equal rites - Equal Rites
• Mort - Mort
• Rechicero - Sourcery
• Witchcraft - Wyrd Sisters
• Pyromids - Pyramids
• Guards! or Guards! Guards!
• Eric - Eric
• Images in action - Moving Pictures
• The reaper - Reaper Man
• Travel witches - Witches Abroad
• Lesser gods - Small Gods
• Lores and ladies - Lords and Ladies
• Men of arms - Men at Arms
• Soul Music - Soul Music
• Interesting times - Interesting Times
• Mascarada - Maskerade
• Pieces of mud - Feet of Clay
• Dad Puerco - Hogfather
• Voto a Bríos! - Jingo!
• The country of the end of the world - The Last Continent
• Carpe Jugulum - Carpe Jugulum
• The fifth elephant - The Fifth Elephant
• The truth - The Truth
• Thief of time - Thief of Time
• The last hero - The Last Hero
• The amazing Mauritius and its wise rodents - The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
• Night round - Night Watch
• The Little Free Men - The Wee Free Men
• Monster regiment - The Monstrous Regiment
• A hat of heaven - A Hat Full of Sky
• Letters in the matter - Going Postal
• Zas! - Thud!
• The Ice Crown - Wintersmith
• Money to mansalva - Making Money
• The invisible athletic - Unseen Academicals
• I'll dress up at midnight. - I Shall Wear Midnight
• Snuff - Snuff.
• All steam. - Raising Steam
• The Crown of the Shepherd - The Shepherd's Crown

Related to the World

• The Streets of Ankh-Morpork
• The Science of Discworld
• GURPS Discworld
• GURPS Discworld Also
• Mort, the work - Mort, The Play
• The Discworld Companion
• Death's Domain
• A Tourist's Guide to Lancre
• Nanny Ogg's Cookbook
• Where's My Cow?
• Once More, with Footnotes

Other works

• Good morning - Good Omenswith Neil Gaiman
• The trilogy of gnomists (juveniles):
  • Truckers - Truckers
  • Diggers - Diggers
  • The ship - Wings
• The Carpet People (juvenile)
• The Dark Side of the Sun
• Strata
• The Unadulterated CatWith Gray Joliffe
• Johnny Maxwell's trilogy:
  • Only you can save humanity - Only You Can Save Mankind
  • Johnny and the dead - Johnny and the Dead
  • Johnny and the bomb. - Johnny and the Bomb
• The dragons of the ruinous castle - Dragons at Crumbling Castle and Other Stories
• Nation - Nation
• Perillán - Dodger
• Jack Dodger's Guide to London
• Get the Earth out!:
  • Long Earth - The Long Earthwith Stephen Baxter
  • The Long War - The Long Warwith Stephen Baxter
  • The Long Mars - The Long Marswith Stephen Baxter
  • The Long Utopia - The Long Utopiawith Stephen Baxter
  • The Cosmos Largo - The Long Cosmoswith Stephen Baxter

Accommodations

Movies

• Hogfather (2006) (Papa puerco en español)

Director: Vadim Jean. Screenplay: Vadim Jean. Actors: David Jason, Marc Warren and Michelle Dockery.

• The Colour of Magic (2008) (The Color of Magic in Spanish)

Duration: 189 minutes. Director: Vadim Jean. Screenplay: Vadim Jean. Music: Paul E. Francis, David A. Hughes. Photography: Gavin Finney. Cast: David Jason, Sean Astin, Tim Curry, Jeremy Irons, Brian Cox, James Cosmo, Christopher Lee and Terry Pratchett.

• Going postal (2010) (Charts in Spanish)

Duration: 185 minutes. Director: Jon Jones. Screenplay: Bev Doyle and Richard Kurti. Music: John Lunn. Photography: Gavin Finney. Cast: Richard Coyle, David Suchet, Claire Foy, Andrew Sachs, Charles Dance, Timothy West and Terry Pratchett.

Animation

• Truckers (1992)
• Wyrd Sisters (1996)
• Soul Music (1996)

Video games

• The Colour of Magic (1986) (Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum)
• Mundodisco (1995) (DOS, PlayStation, Sega Saturn)
• Mundodisco II: Allegedly Disappeared? (1996) (DOS, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Windows)
• Mundodisco Noir (1999) (PlayStation, Windows)

Theater

• Stephen Briggs' theatre company has adapted several Pratchett novels to the theatre. The only one published in Spanish is Mort, the Work.

TV series

• Johnny and the Dead (1995)
• Hogfather (2007)
• The Colour of Magic (2008)
• The Light Fantastic (2008)
• Going Postal (2009)
• Choosing To Die - BBC Documentary on Assisted Suicide (2011)
• Good Omens (2019)
• The Watch (2021)

Internet

Pratchett was one of the first writers to communicate with his fans via the Internet and was a contributor to the Usenet newsgroups alt.fan.pratchett and alt.books.pratchett for more than a decade.

Orangutans

Terry Pratchett's interest in orangutans isn't just confined to the Librarian, a popular Discworld character. He worked for the Orang-Ute Foundation visiting Borneo with Channel 4 to shoot an episode of Jungle Crew in his habitat. Following in his footsteps, fans at Discworld conventions took up the Orang-Ute for charity. From that moment on, at every convention the author attended, an auction was held where fans could bid for his name to appear in the next book. All funds raised went to the Orang-Ute.