Sir Terry Pratchett wrote over 40 Discworld novels in a career spanning decades.
The Discworld books cover a huge range of subject matter and a cast of thousands. Small Gods should be compulsory reading for everyone training for ministry in a religious organisation. Moving Pictures spoofs Hollywood. Soul Music spoofs — you guessed it — the music industry. And has Death playing electric guitar. Equal Rites features a woman wizard storming the masculine domain of Unseen University, out-sourcing — I mean out-sorcerying — all the menz.
Death, as the dark side of Father Time with duck-egg-blue eyes, cameos in almost all if not all of the Discworld novels. Because Death is part of life.
The Sydney Morning Herald says:
His first short story, The Hades Business, was published in a school magazine when he was 13 and was published commercially two years later.
Throughout his life, Sir Terry Pratchett was nothing if not consistent.
Pratchett’s insight and subversive humor has delighted millions. At one stage his novels were 1% of all books sold in Britain. They’re also the books most likely to be stolen from bookstores. I’ve even had a company representative steal one of his books from my own shelves. (She thought I wouldn’t notice, LOL. I didn’t say anything because I wanted her company to fix my house.)
In 2007 Sir Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with an unusual form of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. He campaigned tirelessly for the right to die with dignity because he didn’t want to suffer and didn’t want his family to suffer during the latter stages of his degenerative illness.
Sir Terry Pratchett has now personally met Death.
RIP.
When Sir Terry was in Melbourne, he spoke at the Wheeler Centre. Video and audio versions of his talk are available here.
