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Terence David John Pratchett OBE (born 28 April 1948, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England)[1] is an English fantasy author, best known for his Discworld series. As of February 2007 he had sold approximately 50 million books worldwide.[2]
Biography
Working as a journalist, Pratchett interviewed Peter Bander van Duren, co-director of a small publishing company. During the meeting, Pratchett mentioned he had written a manuscript, The Carpet People.[4] Bander van Duren and his business partner, Colin Smythe, published the book in 1971. In 1980, he became Press Officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board in an area which covered four nuclear power stations; he later joked that he had demonstrated impeccable timing by making this career change so soon after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania, USA, and that 'he would write a book about his experiences, if he thought anyone would believe it.'[5] WritingsPratchett gave up his work for the CEGB in 1987 to make his living through writing and since then has managed to publish two novels a year. According to the 2005 Booksellers' Pocket Yearbook, in 2003 Pratchett's UK sales amounted to 3.4% of the fiction market by hardback sales and 3.8% by value, putting him in 2nd place behind J. K. Rowling (6% and 5.6% respectively), while in the paperback sales list Pratchett came 5th with 1.2% by sales and 1.3% by value (behind James Patterson (1.9% and 1.7%), Alexander McCall Smith, John Grisham and J. R. R. Tolkien).
Personal lifeHis daughter Rhianna Pratchett (born 1976) is a journalist and "accidental cat collector";[11] she has also written a fantasy novella titled Child of Chaos, distributed with the computer role-playing game Beyond Divinity. She is working on the scripts and storyline for the PS3 game Heavenly Sword, the Xbox 360/PC game Overlord, and several others. She is a member of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain.[12] Pratchett lists his recreations as "writing, walking, computers, life".[13] He is also well known for his penchant for wearing large, black hats, as seen on the inside back covers of most of his books. In 2003 Pratchett firmly reinforced his credentials as one of Britain's most loved authors by joining Charles Dickens as the only author with five books in the BBC's Big Read top 100 (four of which were Discworld novels) and was the author with the most novels in the top 200 (fifteen). On 31 July 2005, Pratchett criticised media coverage of Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling, commenting that certain members of the media seemed to think that "the continued elevation of J. K. Rowling can only be achieved at the expense of other writers".[14] Terry Pratchett is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association.[15] BibliographyDiscworldNow containing over forty books, the Discworld series is a humorous and often satirical fantasy work that uses the Discworld as an allegory for our every day life. The name "Discworld" comes from the fact that the world is described as being shaped like a large disc resting on the backs of four giant elephants supported by the enormous turtle Great A'Tuin, swimming its way through space. Major topics of parody have included many science fiction and fantasy characters, ideas and tropes, Ingmar Bergman films, Australia, film making, newspaper publishing, rock and roll music, religion, philosophy, Egyptian history, trade unions, university politics, and monarchy. Pratchett's novel The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents won the 2001 Carnegie Medal for best children's novel (awarded in 2002). See the Discworld article for a list of Discworld novels. Image:PratchetShelf.jpg A shelf full of Terry Pratchett's Discworld Novels. Related worksTogether with Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, Pratchett has also written The Science of Discworld (1999), The Science of Discworld II: The Globe (2002) and The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch (2005). All of these have chapters that alternate between fiction and non-fiction, with the fictional chapters being set within the universe of the Discworld, as its characters observe and experiment on a universe not unlike ours. In 1999 Terry Pratchett made both Cohen and Stewart "Honorary Wizards of the Unseen University" at the same ceremony at which the University of Warwick gave Terry Pratchett an honorary degree.[16] The Bromeliad
The Johnny Maxwell Trilogy
Other works
Books containing contributions from Pratchett
AdaptationsComic books
TheatreSeveral of Pratchett's novels have been adapted as plays by Stephen Briggs and many of the scripts have been published in book form. These include:
In addition, Lords & Ladies has been adapted for the stage by Irana Brown and published, and Pyramids was adapted for the stage by Suzi Holyoake in 1999 and had a week-long theatre run in the UK. Television
Radio
Role-playing games
PC and Console gamesThe Discworld universe has also been used as a basis for a number of Discworld video games on a range of formats, such as the Sega Saturn, the Sony Playstation, the Philips CD-i and the 3DO, as well as DOS- and Windows-based PCs. The most notable games are:
Work is currently underway to add support for Discworld and Discworld II to ScummVM, a cross-platform adventure game interpreter. MoviesTerry Pratchett's novel The Wee Free Men is set to be turned into a film by Sam Raimi, after he finishes work on Spider-Man 3; currently this is expected to be released in 2007. [1] Works about PratchettPratchett's books have received a level of critical acclaim unusual for their genre. A collection of essays about his writings is compiled in the book, Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature?, eds. Andrew M. Butler, Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn, published by Science Fiction Foundation in 2000. A second expanded edition was published by Old Earth Books in 2004. Andrew M. Butler also wrote a Pocket Essentials guide to Pratchett in 2001. Two Discworld quiz books have been published, both compiled by David Langford. They are named The Unseen University Challenge and The Wyrdest Link. CoversThe cover art of all of the Discworld novels sold in the United Kingdom was created by Josh Kirby until his death in 2001. Subsequent covers have been illustrated by Paul Kidby. InternetPratchett was one of the first authors to use the Internet to communicate with fans and has been a contributor to the Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.pratchett since 1992. Pratchett fan forums can also be found on his official website, http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com. InfluencesTerry Pratchett makes no secret of outside influences on his work; they are a major source of humour. He imports numerous characters from popular culture, but adds an unexpected aspect. These references are fairly consistent, and there are lists available on Terry Pratchett fansites which detail all the known references. One of the most known lists is the Annotated Pratchett File,[2] maintained at the L-Space Website.[3] OrangutansPratchett's interest in orangutans is not confined to the Librarian, one of his most popular fictional characters. He has also done work for the Orangutan Foundation including visiting Borneo with a Channel 4 film crew to make an episode of "Jungle Quest", seeing orangutans in their natural habitat. Following Pratchett's lead, fan events such as the Discworld Conventions have adopted the Orangutan Foundation as their nominated charity. At these conventions, if Pratchett is attending, there is often a traditional auction in which fans can bid money to have their name included in the next Discworld book. All proceeds go to the Orangutan Foundation.[4] TrademarksAside from his distinctive writing style, Pratchett is known for the use in his books of footnotes, which usually involve a comic departure from the narrative or commentary on the narrative; these footnotes are more numerous in his earlier work. Another notable feature of Pratchett's style of writing is that the majority of his books are not subdivided into chapters. Pratchett himself has stated that he does this because life does not occur in chapters, nor do most movies, and that Homer did not write in chapters. He claims chapters to be unnecessary in books written for adults (WikiQuote). However, there have been exceptions; the books Going Postal and Thud! were divided into chapters. References
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