About the Author

Created by Winter Raven.

Terry Pratchett was born in 1948 and is still not 
dead. He started work as a journalist one day in 
1965 and saw his first corpse three hours later, 
work experience meaning something in those 
days. After doing just about every job it's possible 
to do in provincial journalism, except of course 
covering Saturday afternoon football, he joined 
the Central Electricity Generating Board and became 
press officer for four nuclear power stations. 
He'd write a book about his experiences if he thought 
anyone would believe it.

All this came to an end in 1987 when it became clear 
that the Discworld series was much more enjoyable 
than real work. Since then the books have reached 
double figures and have a regular place in the 
bestseller list. He also writes books for younger 
readers. Occassionally he gets accused of literature.

Terry Pratchett lives in Wiltshire with his wife Lyn 
and daughter Rhianna. He says writing is the most fun 
anyone can have by themselves.

We've all read this blurb a thousand times and wondered if that is really all there is to the man. Well, it isn't. Surprised you, haven't I?

Terry Pratchett (full name Terrence David John Pratchett) was born in Beaconsfield, Bucks, on the 28th day of April 1948, which makes him a zodiacal Taurus. It was during his sojourn in High Wycombe Technical High School that his first piece of writing was published (in 1963, in the 60th issue of Science Fantasy) -- a short story called The Hades Business, originally something he wrote for a school assignment and published two years earlier in the school magazine. After getting five O-levels and a year after starting 3 A-level courses (Art, History and English), he learned of a job opportunity.
In 1965 he joined the "Bucks Free Press" at the age of sixteen (yes, that's apparently what the corpse thing in the blurb is about), where one of his tasks was to review the publications of a small publishing enterprise called "Colin Smythe Publishing". He interviewed Colin Smythe's co-director Peter Bander van Duren in 1968 and mentioned a book he'd written -- The Carpet People was published three years later. You might recall that Colin Smythe is his agent to this day.
Five years later, The Dark Side Of The Sun emerged, followed another five years afterward by Strata (bear in mind that during that time he was a full-time journalist for "Bucks Free Press" till 1970, spent two years in the Western Daily Press, returned to "Bucks Free Press" in 1972 as sub-editor, left it in 1974 for the "Bath Chronicle", and in 1980 became publicity officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board, responsible for four nuclear powerplants). The semi-Discworld in the latter novel took full form in the 1983 Colour of Magic. Thanks to Corgi, PTerry's paperback publisher to this day, Rincewind and 2Flower got their adventures told on BBC, as later did Eskarina Smith from Equal Rites. After The Light Fantastic, Gollancz snapped up the hardback publishing of further novels. In September 1987, after putting an end to Mort, Terry Pratchett decided to forgo the chance to talk about even more malfunctioning reactors, and committed himself to the Discworld. The rest is History.

Of course, all this did not prevent him from having a personal life -- he married Lyn, his wife to this day, in 1968, and they have a daughter named Rhianna.

As far as trivia is concerned, you might find it interesting to know the facts about Pterry mentioned below:

His books constitute 6.5% of 1998 hardcover fiction sales in Britain, have reached 20 million copies in print and been translated into 27 languages
The launch party for Carpet People took place in the carpet department of Heal's in Tottenham Court Road
He produced a series of cartoons for the "Psychic Researcher" that dealed with Warlock Hill, a fictional governmental paranormal research facility
He bought a computer as soon as the first ZX-81 became available, and has used it for writing since his Amstrad 464
He has at least three computers (1 portable) at any given time
The original Hex was the aforementioned ZX-81, after a whole lotta upgrades and add-ons (like a barometer, solar sensor, light sensor, motion sensor, thermometer, sound card [man, we still don't have this in our school computers :-o], speech card and so on), able to say good morning to him and tell the weather forecast as good as the pros; it finally got so that he didn't know what did what, only that everything stopped working if he took the object out. He still has this thing
As far as religion is concerned, Terry describes himself as a Christian atheist (in case the Lord was feeling trigger-happy)
One of his hobbies is growing carnivorious (or as he says, insectivorious) plants
He supports wildlife preservation, especially in the orangutan aspect
He has received an honorary degree of Doctor of Literature from the University of Warwick -- more details available on their pages. On the same day he made the co-authors of Science of the Discworld honorary wizards of the Unseen University
He was made a member of the Order of the British Empire in 1998 for services to literature (his interpretation "At best, it's kind of a knighthood light"
He recently made his e-mail address public: you can write him at tpratchett@unseen.demon.co.uk
He was voted Best SF/Fantasy Author of 2000 by the readers of SFX Magazine

The Daiquiri story -- in His own words

Let me tell you about banana daiquiris. Years and years ago, there was a world science fiction convention in New Orleans. It had been a really hard day. I'd driven all the way from Pensacola and was quite tired. The hotel had done the usual: "Sorry, sir, we have no record of your reservation at this time." When I showed them the fax confirming my reservation, they denied the existence of the fax. Finally, after being ever so unpleasantly English about it, I got a very, very nice room on the top floor. An American friend said, "I know. I shall take you out to the All-Night Frozen Daiquiri Shop on Bourbon Street!" By that time, I wouldn't have known if we were heading to the All-Night Bourbon Shop on Daiquiri Street. I didn't know that there was alcohol in a daiquiri. I thought it was a pleasant fruit drink. So I had the liter size. I thought, "It's been a long day, and I need a refreshing pick me up." I will say this for the Americans: In England, if you'd ordered a drink that was twice the normal size, they'd water it down. But in New Orleans, a liter daiquiri has twice as much alcohol as a half liter daiquiri. It was so delicious that I had another one. Then I thought I'd try a liter of the peach daiquiri, and I had about half of that one. In the 1950s comic books, sometimes a character would have a nuclear reactor fall on him. Then he'd become "Mr. Atomic". I drank so much banana daiquiri that night that I think every cell in my body was full of banana daiquiri. I became Dr. Daiquiri. I think that's the only way I survived. I couldn't feel my upper lip for quite awhile after that, though. The point is, if you make a real daiquiri, according to a real recipe, you don't feel well again until tea time the next day. If you make it with real cream and the two types of rum and all that, it is seriously bad for your head. The Bourbon Street daiquiris were a lot of fun. But when I'm in Australia I drink beer, because if you are in Australia and you don't drink beer you are prosecuted.

Interesting Quotes

Sooner or later, you have to make a decision as to whether you want to be a fallen angel or a rising ape
-- in the Big Question Interview

(...)fantasy's like a justice which has no real existence in the universe. There is no particle of justice floating around, but we have created it, and it now exists in some kind of a way.
-- in the Big Question Interview

... you could communicate with the dead by taping on a ZX Spectrum keyboard.
-- Warwick University, 11-10-94

English is designed to conceal meaning. German is designed for building precision-engineered motor cars.
-- in The Times

Tough on dragons, tough on the causes of dragons
-- in The Times

If you are prepared to allow a little craziness to enter your life on a regular basis, you'll never become truly insane. It's the people that sit staring at the television for 17 years that pick up a shotgun and go down the high street
-- in The Times

Tolkien appears in the fantasy universe in the same way that Mount Fuji appeared in old Japanese prints. Sometimes small, in the distance, and sometimes big and close-to, and sometimes not there at all, and that's because the artist is standing on Mount Fuji.
-- in the "Post-Fantasy Fantasy" Amazon.com interview

Discworld is everything that happens after.
-- in the "Post-Fantasy Fantasy" Amazon.com interview

Remember, I worked for eight years in the nuclear industry. I know that if you put a handle on a door and mark it 'Pull,' six people will pull, three will push, and one will say, 'Do you want me to pull or push?'
-- in the Locus Magazine December 1999 interview

First off, I have to say that I simply hate it when reviewers call my work "wacky" or "zany". Those people are going to be hunted down by the Mafia!
-- in the WritersWrite interview

Why is it that we always use these really machismo words, like "surfing"? What surfing really means is sitting there, getting hemorrhoids, staring at a screen while clicking on a mouse. It's not surfing at all; it's just being a kind of couch potato
-- in the WritersWrite interview

I must confess the the activities of the UK governments for the past couple of years have been watched with frank admiration and amazement by Lord Vetinari. Outright theft as a policy had never occurred to him.
-- Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett

I mean, I wouldn't pay more than a couple of quid to see me, and I'm me.
-- Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett

Everywhere I've been in Manhattan the streets are called Walk and Don't Walk.
-- Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett

I stroll along, talk, I sign books, people buy me drinks, I forget where my hotel is, I get lost and fall into some local body of water... done it hundreds of times.
-- Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett [on conventions]

I don't sign parts of the body, even if they're still attached.
-- From Terry's Rules of Book Signing (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)

I'd miss the BBC, but not if I had time to reload.
-- Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett

Christin Keck writes:
>Whether reasonable or not, changes in language is a sure sign that it
>is alive.
&npsp;
Cheese crawling across the table is a sure sign that it is alive, too, but we don't have to eat it...
-- Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett

One day I'll be dead and THEN you'll all be sorry.
-- Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett

And that is such a nice comment to end this page upon, don't you think?