About The Author

(Extract from Wikipedia)

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Pratchett was born in 1948 in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, England, the only child of David and Eileen Pratchett, of Hay-on-Wye. His family moved to Bridgwater, Somerset briefly in 1957, following which he passed his eleven plus exam in 1959, earning him a place in John Hampden Grammar School.[17] Pratchett described himself as a "non-descript student", and in his Who's Who entry, credits his education to the Beaconsfield Public Library.[18]

His early interests included astronomy;[19] he collected Brooke Bond tea cards about space, owned a telescope[20] and wanted to be an astronomer, but lacked the necessary mathematical skills.[19] However, this led to an interest in reading British and American science fiction.[20] In turn, this led to attending science fiction conventions from about 1963/4, which stopped when he got his first job a few years later.[20] His early reading included the works of H. G. Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle and "every book you really ought to read" which he now regards as "getting an education".[21]

At age 13, Pratchett published his first short story "The Hades Business" in the school magazine. It was published commercially when he was 15.[22]

Pratchett earned 5 O-levels and started A-level courses in Art, English and History. Pratchett's first career choice was journalism and he left school at 17 in 1965 to start working for the Bucks Free Press where he wrote, amongst other things, several stories for the Children's Circle section under the name Uncle Jim. One of these episodic stories contains named characters from The Carpet People. These stories are currently part of a project by the Bucks Free Press to make them available online.[23] While on day release he finished his A-Level in English and took a proficiency course for journalists.[24]

[edit] Early career

Pratchett had his first breakthrough in 1968, when working as a journalist. He came to interview Peter Bander van Duren, co-director of a small publishing company. During the meeting, Pratchett mentioned he had written a manuscript, The Carpet People.[25] Bander van Duren and his business partner, Colin Smythe (of Colin Smythe Ltd Publishers) published the book in 1971, with illustrations by Pratchett himself.[24] The book received strong, if few reviews.[24] The book was followed by the science fiction novels The Dark Side of the Sun, published in 1976, and Strata, published in 1981.[24]

After various positions in journalism, in 1980 Pratchett became Press Officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board in an area which covered three nuclear power stations. He later joked that he had demonstrated "impeccable timing" by making this career change so soon after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania, U.S., and said he would "write a book about my experiences, if I thought anyone would believe it".[26]

The first Discworld novel The Colour of Magic was published in 1983 by Colin Smythe in hardback. The publishing rights for paperback were soon taken by Corgi, an imprint of Transworld, the current publisher. Pratchett received further popularity after the BBC's Woman's Hour broadcast The Colour of Magic as a serial in six parts, after it was published by Corgi in 1985 and later Equal Rites. Subsequently, rights for hardback were taken by the publishing house Victor Gollancz, which remained Pratchett's publisher until 1997, and Smythe became Pratchett's agent. Pratchett was the first fantasy author published by Gollancz.[24]

Pratchett gave up working for the CEGB in 1987 after finishing the fourth Discworld novel, Mort, to focus fully on and make his living through writing. His sales increased quickly and many of his books occupied top places on the best-seller list. According to The Times, Pratchett was the top-selling and highest earning UK author in 1996.[24] Some of his books have been published by Doubleday, another Transworld imprint. In the US, Pratchett is published by HarperCollins.

According to the Bookseller's Pocket Yearbook from 2005, in 2003 Pratchett's UK sales amounted to 3.4% of the fiction market by hardback sales and 3.8% by value, putting him in 2nd place behind J. K. Rowling (6% and 5.6% respectively), while in the paperback sales list Pratchett came 5th with 1.2% by sales and 1.3% by value (behind James Patterson (1.9% and 1.7%), Alexander McCall Smith, John Grisham and J. R. R. Tolkien).[27] His sales in the UK alone are more than 2.5 million copies a year.[10] He is the most shop-lifted author in Britain.[28]

[edit] Current life

Terry Pratchett married his wife Lyn in 1968,[24] and they moved to Rowberrow, Somerset in 1970. Their daughter Rhianna Pratchett, who is also a writer, was born there in 1976. In 1993 the family moved to a village north-west of Salisbury, Wiltshire, where they currently live. He lists his recreations as "writing, walking, computers, life".[29] He describes himself as a humanist and is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association[30] and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.[31] He is the patron of the Friends of High Wycombe Library.[32]

Pratchett is well known for his penchant for wearing large, black fedora hats,[33] as seen on the inside back covers of most of his books. His style has been described as "more that of urban cowboy than city gent."[34]

Concern for the future of civilisation has prompted him to install five kilowatts of photovoltaic cells (for solar energy) at his house.[35] In addition, his interest in astronomy since childhood has led him to build an observatory in his garden.[19][20] An asteroid (127005 Pratchett) is named after him.[36]

On 31 December 2008 it was announced that Pratchett was to be knighted (as a Knight Bachelor) in the Queen's 2009 New Year Honours.[11][37] He formally received the accolade at Buckingham Palace on 18 February 2009.[38] Afterwards he said, "You can't ask a fantasy writer not to want a knighthood. You know, for two pins I'd get myself a horse and a sword."[39] In late 2009, he did make himself a sword, with the help of his friends. He told a Times Higher Education interviewer that "'At the end of last year I made my own sword. I dug out the iron ore from a field about 10 miles away - I was helped by interested friends. We lugged 80 kilos of iron ore, used clay from the garden and straw to make a kiln, and lit the kiln with wildfire by making it with a bow.' Colin Smythe, his long-term friend and agent, donated some pieces of meteoric iron - 'thunderbolt iron has a special place in magic and we put that in the smelt, and I remember when we sawed the iron apart it looked like silver. Everything about it I touched, handled and so forth ... And everything was as it should have been, it seemed to me.'