Author Terry Pratchett Dead at 66
Sir Terry Pratchett, best known for his Discworld series of novels, has passed away “with his cat sleeping on his bed, surrounded by his family” earlier today.
Publishers Transworld released the news this morning “with immeasurable sadness”. Managing director Larry Finlay, said: “The world has lost one of its brightest, sharpest minds.”
Pratchett was the author of over seventy novels, with the Discworld series being his most prominent. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1998 and was knighted in 2009 for his service to literature. Pratchett later commented in the Ansible SF/fan newsletter, “I suspect the ‘services to literature’ consisted of refraining from trying to write any,” but added, “Still, I cannot help feeling mightily chuffed about it.”
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His books have sold more than 85 million copies worldwide in 37 languages, and he was Britain’s second most-read author, just behind J.K. Rowling. Pratchett was known for his sense of humor and satirical wit, as well as his very public fight with early-onset Alzheimer’s. He was a vocal “right to die” advocate.
Diagnosed with Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA) in 2007, he spoke openly about his condition and campaigned for increased awareness. Finlay said, “Terry faced his Alzheimer’s disease (an ‘embuggerance’, as he called it), publicly and bravely. Over the last few years, it was his writing that sustained him. His legacy will endure for decades to come.”
“It would appear to me that me getting up and saying ‘I’ve got Alzheimer’s’, it did shake people,” Pratchett once said. “The thing about Alzheimer’s is there are few families that haven’t been touched by the disease. People come up to me and talk about it and burst into tears; there’s far more awareness about it and that was really what I hoped was going to happen.”
AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.
— Terry Pratchett 🖤 🤍 (@terryandrob) March 12, 2015
Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.
— Terry Pratchett 🖤 🤍 (@terryandrob) March 12, 2015
The End.
— Terry Pratchett 🖤 🤍 (@terryandrob) March 12, 2015
