Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett
Author • Narrator28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015 · From United Kingdom- Books
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About
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) was an English author best known for the Discworld series, a sequence of forty-one comic fantasy novels set on a flat world carried through space on the backs of four elephants standing on a giant turtle. Across four decades, the Discworld grew from a parody of sword-and-sorcery fantasy into one of the most sustained works of social satire in English literature, examining politics, religion, science, gender, race, capitalism, and the nature of stories themselves.
Pratchett was born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, in 1948 and published his first short story at thirteen. He worked as a journalist and press officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board before the success of The Colour of Magic (1983) and its sequel allowed him to write full-time in 1987.
He wrote prolifically for the rest of his life, producing at least one novel per year across most of the 1990s and 2000s while also collaborating with Neil Gaiman (Good Omens, 1990), Stephen Baxter (the Long Earth series), and Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen (the Science of Discworld series).
He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1998 and was knighted in 2009 for services to literature. In December 2007 he announced that he had been diagnosed with posterior cortical atrophy, a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He donated £1 million to Alzheimer's Research UK, delivered the Richard Dimbleby Lecture on assisted dying in 2010, and campaigned publicly for dementia research and end-of-life rights until he was no longer able to do so.
He continued writing with the help of assistants and voice-recognition software. His final Discworld novel, The Shepherd's Crown, was completed before his death and published posthumously in August 2015. He died on 12 March 2015 at his home in Wiltshire, with his family beside him and his cat on his bed. He was sixty-six.
At the time of his death he was the second-bestselling author in the United Kingdom, behind J.K. Rowling. His books have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide and have been translated into more than forty languages.
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Fantasy Fiction Humor Comic Fiction Satire
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Frequently asked questions
While the Discworld novels can often be read as standalones, many readers prefer to follow specific sub-series or character arcs, such as the City Watch or Witches novels, rather than strict publication order. There are several popular suggested reading orders available online that group related stories together.
Many of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels have been adapted into various forms, including animated series, live-action television movies, and a recent streaming series. Notable adaptations include 'Hogfather,' 'The Colour of Magic,' 'Going Postal,' and 'Good Omens,' which he co-authored.
Pratchett published over 70 books in his lifetime, including 41 Discworld novels, the Bromeliad Trilogy, the Johnny Maxwell Trilogy, the Long Earth series (co-written with Stephen Baxter), four Science of Discworld books (co-written with Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen), Good Omens (co-written with Neil Gaiman), and several standalone novels and short fiction collections.
Terry Pratchett received numerous accolades throughout his career, including the Carnegie Medal for 'The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents' and the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement. He was also knighted for his services to literature.
The first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983. Pratchett had the idea of a flat world carried by a turtle years earlier, but the series grew substantially beyond its original satirical premise across the following four decades.
Terry Pratchett is renowned for his satirical wit, clever wordplay, and ability to explore complex philosophical and social themes within a humorous fantasy setting. His narratives often feature memorable characters and a unique blend of absurdity and profound insight.
In December 2007 Pratchett announced he had been diagnosed with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), a rare variant of Alzheimer's disease that primarily affects visual and spatial processing before affecting memory and language. He donated £1 million to Alzheimer's Research UK and became one of the most prominent public advocates for dementia research in the UK.
Pratchett was knighted in the 2009 New Year Honours list for services to literature. He was notably photographed with a sword he had made himself from meteorite iron, which he considered appropriate for the occasion.
Yes. Pratchett completed The Shepherd's Crown, the forty-first and final Discworld novel, before his death on 12 March 2015. His publisher noted it was in an earlier stage of revision than his previous books, but Pratchett had signed off on it. It was published posthumously in August 2015.
Pratchett had expressed a wish that any unfinished works on his hard drive should be destroyed after his death. In August 2017, in accordance with his wishes, his hard drive was run over by a steamroller at the Great Dorset Steam Fair.
Good Omens (1990) is a comic fantasy novel co-written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman about an angel and a demon who try to prevent the Apocalypse. Pratchett and Gaiman were friends who wrote the novel together over nine weeks. It was adapted as an Amazon Prime Video television series in 2019 with Gaiman as showrunner.
Discworld has no single required reading order — the 41 novels span multiple loosely-connected sub-series (the Witches, the Watch, Death, Moist von Lipwig, Tiffany Aching, and standalone novels). Most readers start with either The Colour of Magic (first published) or Guards! Guards! (the first Watch novel, widely considered an excellent entry point). Each sub-series can be read in publication order within its group.