10 aMaZinG FacTs aBoUT Terry PraTcheTT
1 Terry’s first published work was a short story, “The hades Business”. he sold it to Science Fantasy magazine at the age of 15, but it was actually written two years previously. 2 at the age of 17 he got a job as a trainee reporter. within a few hours on the job he’d already seen his first dead body. “That’s when i learned you can go on throwing up after you run out of things to throw up,” he later said. 3 although he was already writing novels, Pratchett didn’t want to abandon the safety of a full- time job, so he took the role of a press officer with responsibility for three nuclear power stations. with typical “good” timing it came just after the meltdown of the reactor at Three Mile island in the United states.
4 Psephophorus
terrypratchetti is a species of fossilised sea turtle first discovered in 1995. it was named by robert Kohler in honour of his favourite author. 5 Pratchett was named an oBe in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 new year honours list. 6 Terry was the bestselling author in the UK through the ’ 90s until 2005 – and remains the country’s most shoplifted! his books are translated into 36 different languages. 7 in 2010 he was granted his own coat of arms. They feature an owl, an ankh and the motto “noli Timere Messorem” – which, translated, means “don’t fear the reaper”. 8 The same year, he forged his own sword. with the help of experts he constructed a kiln, gathered 81kg of iron ore and pieces of meteorite and smelted it himself. 9 he donated a lot of money to alzheimer’s charities. in 2007 he gave $ 1 million to the alzheimer’s research Trust. The day after his death, fans had raised £ 28,000 for his chosen charity, The research institute for the care of older People ( rice). 10 and, of course, he wrote a lot of books. Too many to list here, in fact, but including: 41 discworld novels; four
Science Of Discworld books ( with Professor ian stewart and dr Jack cohen); the Truckers trilogy; the Johnny Maxwell trilogy; the Long Earth quartet ( with stephen Baxter); six standalone novels ( The Carpet People, The Dark Side Of The Sun, Strata,
Nation, Dodger and Good Omens, with neil Gaiman); The Unadulterated Cat; Where’s My Cow; Dragons At Crumbling Castle; an anthology of short stories; a collection of non- fiction; and various maps, diaries and companion volumes.