Dahl’s tip to young Pratchett: most people are nasty
Interview for local paper by Discworld author when he was 21 proves the pair crossed paths
AS TWO of English literature’s bestloved writers of comic fantasy, the discovery of a conversation between Terry Pratchett and Roald Dahl would be the stuff of fantasy itself for legions of fans.
Now evidence that they met and discussed stories and the difficulty of writing children’s books has been found. It comes in the form of an interview Pratchett conducted with Dahl in 1969, when was a 21-year-old journalist on a local newspaper. Dahl, then 52, had already published Charlie and The Choc
olate Factory and James and The Giant Peach, short stories for adults and screenplays for You Only Live Twice and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
That Pratchett had requested an interview was known, as their introductory letters had survived. On headed notepaper from the Bucks Free Press, he wrote to Dahl “as an admirer of your work – both short stories and the children’s books”. Dahl replied: “I will see if we can arrange a meeting.” The letters appear on the official Dahl website with a note: “Unfortunately, other than the small glimpse these letters give, we have no other information, so tantalisingly we don’t know if a meeting ever took place.”
However, Marc Burrows, author of a forthcoming Pratchett biography, has found the interview, proving they met at Dahl’s home in Great Missenden, Bucks. Published on May 21, 1969 in the Midweek Free Press, the interview had been missed, because Pratchett had written under the name “Marcus”.
In the interview, Dahl said: “The purpose of a writer like me is to entertain, purely and simply. There’s no message ess behind it except the usual underlying unde one that any writer tries to get through, th which is that some people are very v nasty and some are very nice.
“Most “M people are very nasty, when you get g down to it. But basically, one is an entertainer, en which is what a lot of fiction writers w forget – and they become moralists.” mora He added: “It’s not easier to write books for children, it might be harder… harde but it is much more rewarding – not financially, but otherwise.“
Elsewhere, El Dahl despaired of the “egotism” “eg of artists “who walk around thinking this is the most important thing in the world and that they are, therefore, the most important people.”
He said: “The most important things in the world are things like childcare, and families, and medicine.”
Colin Smythe, who became Pratchett’s agent after publishing his first books, told The Sunday Telegraph: “It’s a definite discovery… I must get all the non-fiction articles by Marcus checked to see what else we have missed.”
Burrows includes the discovery in his book, The Magic of Terry Pratchett, published by Pen & Sword Books later this month. Pratchett died in 2015, aged 66. Dahl died in 1990, aged 74.