Sir Terry Pratchett: from West Country press officer to much-loved author, his legacy will endure

 
Celebrated author: Sir Terry Pratchett (Picture: Getty)
Getty
Louise Jury13 March 2015

When the first book in what was to become Terry Pratchett’s hit comic fantasy Discworld saga was published, he was - slightly improbably - the West Country press officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board.

But the challenge of answering queries on the three nuclear power stations in his patch was soon overtaken by the international success of The Colour of Magic which was to be the first of around 40 stories of the fictional Discworld, a flat disc balanced on the backs of four elephants which, in turn, stands on the back of a giant turtle.

Pratchett, who died at home today in Wiltshire, went on to become one of the best-loved and genially flamboyant of British writers and the biggest seller of the Nineties.

Known for wearing a large black fedora hat, he continued writing even after the surprise diagnoses in 2007 of a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer’s which was officially called posterior cortical atrophy (PCA).

Terry Pratchett

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With characteristic wit, he named it the “embuggerance,” donated around £500,000 to Alzheimer’s research and made a two-part documentary about how the illness was affecting his life which won a Bafta.

Two years later he was knighted and admitted afterwards: “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.”

Despite the humour with which he faced the encroaching illness, in 2009 he backed the principle of assisted suicide and said he hoped to die before his disease progressed to a critical point.

But he survived longer than some medical experts predicted and died earlier today from complications of the disease with his cat on his bed and surrounded by his family.

Publisher Larry Finlay of Transworld said: “Over the last few years it was his writing that sustained him. His legacy will endure for decades to come.”

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