Terry Pratchett
| Name: | Terry Pratchett |
| Also Known As: | Sir Terence David John Pratchett, OBE |
| Occupation: | Author, Screenwriter |
| Medium: | Books, Film |
| Works: | Full Bibliography |
| Official Website(s): | TerryPratchettBooks.com |
| Fan Website(s): | |
| On Fanlore: | Related pages |
Terry Pratchett was a prolific, well-loved British author of Science Fiction and Fantasy whose career spanned over thirty years. Pratchett is best known for his Discworld series and for the novel Good Omens, his cult-classic 1990 collaboration with Neil Gaiman. He won numerous awards over the years for his writing, and was knighted in 2009.
Despite his announcement in late 2007 that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, his output barely slowed in the following years; if anything, for several years it was stronger and more voluminous than ever. He publicly funded Alzheimer's research and supported a number of other charitable efforts as well.
A number of Pratchett's works have been adapted for television, including Wyrd Sisters, Soul Music, Truckers, Johnny and the Bomb, Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, and Going Postal. A number of other television adaptation projects have either been postponed or are currently classified as status unknown. The BBC produced a full-cast radio adaptation of Good Omens in 2014. Perhaps his bravest effort to date, his 2011 documentary on assisted suicide entitled Choosing to Die won the award for Best Documentary On a Contemporary Theme at the Grierson British Documentary Awards.
He contributed to the Oblivion mod Vilja, created by Emma and Charles "CD" Cooley.
Pratchett, along with his assistant, Rob Wilkins, maintained a lively and popular Twitter feed, which was used in typically irreverent fashion to announce his death as though his popular character, Death, had come to collect him.
Terry Pratchett died on March 12th 2015, aged 66.
GNU Terry Pratchett
Many of Pratchett's fans have added the message "GNU Terry Pratchett" in hidden spots in their websites, and "#gnu terry pratchett" is a common hashtag for content on Twitter and Tumblr that mentions him.
Explanation: GNU Terry Pratchett project. In Discworld, the code for the Clacks (their version of the telegraph) includes:
- G: send the message on
- N: do not log the message
- U: turn the message around at the end of the line and send it back again
In one of the books, when the son of the creator of the Clacks died, he added his son's name to the Clacks' messages as a memorial, because "a man is not dead while his name is still spoken." Pratchett's fans have added his name as a continuing message online in the same way.