Cover of Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes

Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes

The moving and joyously funny must-read official biography of one of our finest storytellers

 Sample

Get 30 days of Standard free

€5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for €0.00
More purchase options

Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes

By: Rob Wilkins
Narrated by: Rob Wilkins
Try for €0.00

€5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for €20.99

Buy Now for €20.99

Season's Savings | 0.99 €/month for 3 months

5.99 €/month thereafter - terms apply. Cancel monthly.

Brought to you by Penguin.

WINNER OF THE BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION ASSOCIATION AWARD FOR BEST NON-FICTION

'PEOPLE THINK THAT STORIES ARE SHAPED BY PEOPLE. IN FACT, IT'S THE OTHER WAY AROUND.'

At the time of his death in 2015, award-winning and bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett was working on his finest story yet - his own.

At six years old, Terry was told by his headteacher that he would never amount to anything. He spent the rest of his life proving that teacher wrong. At sixty-six, Terry had lived a life full of achievements: becoming one of the UK's bestselling writers, winning the Carnegie Medal and being awarded a knighthood for services to literature.

Following his untimely death from Alzheimer's disease, the mantle of completing Terry's memoir was passed to Rob Wilkins, his former assistant, friend and now head of the author's literary estate.

Drawing on his own extensive memories, along with those of Terry's family, friends, fans and colleagues, Rob recounts Terry's extraordinary story - from his early childhood to the literary phenomenon that his Discworld series became; and how he met and coped with the challenges that 'The Embuggerance' of Alzheimer's brought with it.

'Of all the dead authors in the world, Terry Pratchett is the most alive.' - John Lloyd

'Always readable, illuminating and honest. It made me miss the real Terry.' - Neil Gaiman

© Rob Wilkins 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

 Art & Literature Authors Friendship Physical Illness & Disease Relationships
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Reviews

Always readable, illuminating and honest. It made me miss the real Terry.
Heart breaking and funny . . . sometimes joyfully, sometimes painfully, intimate . . . it is wonderful to have this closeup picture of the writer's working life. (Frank Cottrell-Boyce)
The joy of this biography . . . is that it spins magic from mundanity in precisely the way Pratchett himself did.
No one, after Pratchett's wife, Lyn, and daughter, Rhianna, knew the author as well as Wilkins. I wept through the last 20 pages - beautifully done - charting Pratchett's decline in a way that is both sensitive and unsparing.
Fond, funny and conveys a pitch-perfect sense of how Pratchett managed to take the elements of his 1950s working-class childhood . . . and turn it into a universe of limitless richness and invention.
The friendship and affection between the pair shines through every page . . . Of course, [Pratchett] fans will love the book . . . and even casual readers will delight in tales of his idiosyncratic passions.
A biography almost as funny and perceptive as one of Terry's novels . . . a rich, deeply affectionate portrait of a unique personality . . . it's a joy to see the much-missed author spring back into technicolour life in this fascinating and deeply moving tribute.
A moving and acutely observed account . . . Pratchett's magical mind, and dementia, by the man who knew him best.
Wilkins has many advantages over most biographers, having not only known his subject well, but taken down notes while he was alive for his projected memoir. The result, at times, is like a ventriloquist act, with Pratchett's voice and personality emerging loud and clear.
Both more and less than a biography . . . full of insights and revelations, in many ways the sort of thing Prathett might have written about himself, proud of what has been done, honest about the process . . . written with intelligence and compassion. (Christopher Priest)
All
Most relevant
How I agree with the words of David Lloyd, quoted by Rob at the end of this extraordinary book.
Rob's words, spoken when he stood alone with Terry just after his friend had died, moved me more than any fiction I've ever read.
This is a wonderful book, bringing to exuberant life, one of the very best, most joyous, funniest and most furious writers of our generation.
But it also gives us an insight into Rob's own place in Terry's life and it warms the narrative in every line.
Rob's narration is perfect.

Of all our dead writers, the most alive

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I pre-ordered this book as soon as it became available but i couldn't make myself listen to it before now. After going through the whole series again with the new recordings i felt it was time. Even now i cried my eyes out. I have even more admiration for Terry. Beyond his amazing social satire and his wit and the deep underlying themes of his books, i am now further amazed at his dedication, at how much he gave us and untill the very end. The man was a giant! Honestly he should be required reading and analyzing, his books show the importance of empathy, critical thinking, non-discrimination, humanity, what society can turn into when these values are forgotten, and that it can be brought back around. I was amazed that the ridiculous cliche that Terry fans are all male SF afficionados who only look for a laugh is apparently still going strong. Most hard core Terry fans i know are women, and they love his work for the deeper themes, though the deliciously witty humor is a plus. I am very sad that Mrs Voldemort is still in front of Terry in the charts. His work is certainly far above HP in prose quality, not to mention original ideas and themes, though i suppose it requires a bit more thinking and readers willing/able to question their own assumptions and preconceived ideas and question society and see the anger beyond the witty humor. And as we have seen time and again even poets can be unable to look beyond their prejudices.

Thank you

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.