Biography
Terry Pratchett was innate around Beaconsfield to David & Eileen Pratchett, of Hay-on-Wye. He credits his education to High Wycombe Technical High School and Beaconsfield Public Library.

His foremost promulgated operate was a short story "The Hades Business", which appeared around his school magazine while he was Xiii, & was afterwards reprinted inside Science Fantasy magazine in 1963, for which he was paid £14. His 2nd promulgated function was "Night Dweller", which appeared around New Worlds magazine, issue 156 in November 1965.

around allowing school in 1965, he gained employment as a local newspaper journalist on the Bucks Free Click ("I started work one morning and saw my first body three hours later, 'on-the-job training' meaning something in those days"). He afterward moved inside to the total of more regional newspapers in south-south-west England including the American Daily Click & Bath Chronicle.

It was when you took his period as the journalist that he was sent to locate Peter Bander van Duren, the co-director of Colwithin Smythe Limited, a little publisher in Gerrards Cross, about the newly book the company was publishing & Pratchett happened to mention that he got written a novel of his have, A Rug Humans. It was one of these days published around 1971, with the launch person held in the carpeting department of Recover's emporium in Tottenham Court Road, London.

Within 1980, he became Press Officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board in an area which covered many nuclear power stations; he late joked that he got demonstrated impeccable timing by making this career vary and so presently when a Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania, America. Pratchett gave higher his act for the CEGB around 1987 when he realised he could produce the residing across writing; this accounts for the important increase inside his output, & since so has managed to publish ii novels a year. Based on data from a ''2005 Booksellers' Pocket Yearbook'', around 2003 Pratchett's UK sales amounted to 3.4% of the fiction market by hardcover sales & Tercet.8% by value, putting him within 2d 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).

Inside 1998 Terry Pratchett was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to literature. Often, his have tongue-inside-facetious comment was "I suspect the 'services to literature' consisted of refraining from trying to write any." He has been awarded honorary Doctor's degree of Letters, per University of Warwick in 1999, by the University of Portsmouth in 2001 and by the University of Bristol in 2004.

His girl Rhianna Pratchett (innate 1976) is a fantasy creator, journalist & "accidental cat collector".

Pratchett lists his recreations when "writing, walking, computers, life." He is too easily known for his taste for wearing big, nigrify hats, equally seen on the in back covers of virtually all of his books.

Inside July 31, 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". His remarks were late taken away from context & interpreted by numerous as an attack in Rowling herself, like than a media. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4732385.stm]

In October 19th 2005, Pratchett was admitted to the Accident and Emergency department of St. James's Hospital, Dublin, after several days of chest pains forced him to leave an earlier book signing in the city.

Discworld
At present containing complete Xxx books, a Discworld series is a humourous fantasy act that parodies all about under a sun in which a disc-shaped world rotates on the backs of four giant elephants supported per tremendous turtle Peachy The'Tuin floating its way across space. Major topics of parody stand involved numerous science fiction and fantasy characters, ideas and figure, Ingmar Bergman films, Australia, film making, newspaper publishing, rock and roll music, religion, philosophy (mainly Greek), Egyptian history, trade unions, monarchy, & in and in.

Pratchett's novel A Amazing Maurice & His Educated Rodents won a 2001 Carnegie Medal for best toddlers's novel (awarded in 2002).

View a Discworld article for a names of Discworld novels.

Related works
Together by owning 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). Everthing one use chapters that alternate between nonmade-up prose & non-fiction, sustaining a fictional chapters existence principally assail the Discworld.

Adaptations
Comic books
The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Mort and Guards! Guards!'' have all been adapted as graphic novels. Theatre
Many of Pratchett's novels keep close at hand been adapted when plays by Stephen Briggs and many of the scripts own been published within book form. These include: Wyrd Sisters: A Play (1996) Mort: A Play (1996) Johnny & a Dead (1996) (non-Discworld) Guards! Guards!: A Play (1997) Men at Arms: A Play (1997) Maskerade (1998) Interesting Days (2002) A Truth (2002) Television
Johnny and the Dead was made into the TV serial for Children's ITV on ITV1 in 1995. It starred Andrew Falvery as Johnny, and featured Brian Blessed as William Stickers and George Baker as Alderman Bowler. Animation
Truckers was adapted as a prevent-animation series for Thames Television by Cosgrove Hall Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music have also been adapted when alive series by Cosgrove Hall Films for Channel 4. Radio
Guards! Guards!, Wyrd Sisters and Mort have been dramatised as serials and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents has been heard as a 90-minute play, all for BBC Radio 4. Role-playing games
Discworld MUD, a loose, highly big, low game according to a series. GURPS Discworld (Steve Jackson Games, 1998) and GURPS Discworld Also (Steve Jackson Games, 2001) were written by Terry Pratchett and Phil Masters & are not lone tremendous role-swimming source books, however as well offer many insights into a workings of a Discworld and the power of tale. A foremost one deuce books has recently been re-freed under a title of The Discworld Roleplaying Game by using art by Paul Kidby. PC and Console games
a Discworld universe has besides been utilized as the basis for a total of Discworld computer game in a range of formats, like the Sega Saturn, the Sony Playstation, the Philips CD-i, and a 3DO Console as well as Windows PCs. Too when others, a virtually all luminary come: The Colour of Magic, the 1st game according to a series and then far the merely 1 directly adapted from either a Discworld novel. It was freed within 1986 for the Sinclair Spectrum. Discworld, an animated "point-and-click" style game by Psygnosis Ltd. in 1995. Discworld II (Discworld 2), the followup game to the original in the equivalent style by Psygnosis Ltd. in 1996. It was sub-titled "Mortality Bytes" in the America & "Missing, Presumed...!?" in the UK & Europe. Discworld Noir is the first 3D game according to Discworld & two an case & parody of the noir genre. A game was created by Perfect Entertainment and released by GT Interactive for both a PC and PlayStation in 1999. It was freed single in the UK & Europe.

Other non-Discworld books by Pratchett
Strata'' (though this does feature the disc wrought globe, a novel is supplementary a parody of Larry Niven's Ringworld) (Colin Smythe, 1981) The Dark Side of the Sun (Colin Smythe, 1976) The Carpet People (Pratchett's debut novel, re-released inside the substantially rewritten edition fallowing he became illustrious) (Colin Smythe, 1971) The trilogy of babies's books (called The Bromeliad): Truckers Diggers Wings Good Omens (co-written with Neil Gaiman) The Unadulterated Cat (with Gray Jolliffe. The court to really cats) The trilogy of tikes's books just about Johnny Maxwell, who understands dead humans, aliens & the kind of more off-the-wall items: Only You Can Save Mankind Johnny and the Dead Johnny and the Bomb Once More* *With Footnotes - a collection of articles, introductions & short stories, published by NESFA.

Other books containing contributions by Pratchett
The Wizards of Odd edited by Peter Haining (1997) includes a Discworld short story The Mammoth Book of Twentieth Century Ghost Stories edited by Peter Haining (1998) is the "sequel" to The Wizards of Odd and starts off by having the Pratchett story featuring Death. Meditations on Middle-Earth (2002) The Leaky Establishment written by David Langford and recently re-issued for which Pratchett provided a foreword The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy edited by Mike Ashley (2001) contains a story featuring Cohen the Barbarian. Effective Omens was co-written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Works about Pratchett
Pratchett's books keep around received the level of critical eclat unusual for their genre. The collection of essays all about his writings is compiled in the book, Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature?, explosive detection system. Andrew M. Butler, Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn, publish by Science Fiction Foundation in 2000.

2 small beer books use been published, each compiled by David Langford. It is known as A Unseen University Challenge & A Wyrdest Hyperlink.

Fans
Foremost editions of the early Discworld books within skillful affliction may be valuable - a British foremost hardbacked edition of The Colour of Magic is currently worth all over £2000 (4,500 copies were printed by St Martin's Click within a America, of which 506 were sold in Britain under a Colin Smythe imprint, hence the scarceness!), when A Weak Wow is worth £1000-1500.

These are potentially imaginable for a character within one of the first Discworld books known as when yourself. Normally humans pop up within the books by bidding for the privilege in charity auctions. Look at: Discworld, Discworld characters.

A handle art of everthing of the Discworld novels sold in the United Kingdom until 2001 were created by Josh Kirby.

Internet
Pratchett was one of the foremost authors to utilize a Internet to communicate using fans & has been a contributor to the Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.pratchett for all over the decade.

Influences
Terry Pratchett makes no secret of outside influences in his function; it is the major source of humour. He imports many characters from either popular culture, however adds an unexpected aspect. These informatiin come fairly uniform, & there are lists available on Terry Pratchett fansites which detail all the known information.

Orangutans
Pratchett's interest around orangutans is not confined to the Librarian, one of his most popular fictional characters. He has too work for the Orang-Utan Foundation including camping Borneo with a Channel 4 film crew to make an episode of "Jungle Quest", seeing orangutang in their natural home ground. As a result Pratchett's lead, fan cases like a Discworld Conventions keep around adopted a Orang-Utan Foundation when their nominated charity. At these conventions, whenever Pratchett is attending, there is a traditional auction where fans potty bid money to keep close at hand their title involved in the next Discworld book. 100% take return a Orangutan Foundation[http://www.orangutan.org/home/home.php].

Trademarks
Aside from either his distinctive genre, Pratchett is known for the apply of footer inside his books.Commonly involving a comical departure from either the story or even comment on the narrative, these footer come extra many inside his sooner operate.

Notes