The creator of the phenomenally bestselling Discworld series, Terry Pratchett was known and loved around the world for his hugely popular books, his smart satirical humour and the humanity of his campaign work. But that's only part of the picture.

Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes by Rob Wilkins Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes by Rob Wilkins

Similar qualms on Terry’s part affected the price paid up front for Good Omens, his 1990 collaboration with Neil Gaiman. During 1985, Neil had shown Terry a file containing 5,282 words exploring a scenario in which Richmal Crompton’s William Brown had somehow become the Antichrist. Terry loved it, and the concept stayed in his mind. A couple of years later, he rang Neil to ask him if he had done any more work on it. Neil, who had been spending that time thinking about his series The Sandman, for DC Comics, said he hadn’t really given it another thought. Terry said: “Well, I know what happens next, so either you can sell me the idea or we can write it together.” Neil knew straight away which of those options he preferred. As he said: “It was like Michelangelo ringing up and saying, ‘Do you fancy doing a ceiling?’” I'll admit that I wept when I heard Terry Pratchett had died. I didn't know him. I'd never met him. I had little knowledge of his wellbeing since the announcement that he had a rare form of Alzheimer's had been announced. But I had read almost everything he wrote and I loved him for it. So I wept because I knew there'd be no more. Starts slow, and somewhat off for me, as I had to adjust my image of Terry Pratchett with the author's extensive experience of same ;) One thing's for sure, Wilkins is not sugar-coating things - he respects - and knew - Pratchett well enough not to even hint at lionizing him, and for that he has my respect. Does it make the book harder to read? Yep, absolutely. But in the end, it's also absolutely worth it. The creator of the phenomenally bestselling Discworld series, Terry Pratchett was known and loved around the world for his hugely popular books, his smart satirical humour and the humanity of his campaign work. But that’s only part of the picture.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.

Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes: The Official Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes: The Official

Possibly, it will never not be difficult reading about TP or reading one of his books (I often end up in tears) but this was also balm for the soul and kinda gave me a weird form of closure. Moreover, I will re-read the entire Discworld series now that the new audiobooks are almost all released (the last few will become available within the year) so this was a good start to the re-read before I'm a ball of emotions again. Of all the dead authors in the world,’ John said fervently, ‘Terry Pratchett is the most alive.’ It felt entirely true to me at that moment, and it feels entirely true to me now. But then he thought about it more seriously. “I wish I had started writing for a living earlier,” he said eventually. “I could probably have started to write full time about 10 years before I did.” This book is a wonderful insight into the life and mind of the late Sir Terry Pratchett. We follow his whole life story, through early years as a reporter onto his highly successful Discworld writing and ending with, well, The End. The author Rob Wilkins worked very closely with Pratchett for many years and it was wonderful reading his views and insights, and this, combined with quotes and notes from Terry himself in years past, really help deliver a personal experience. Reading this often felt like being in the room with the pair of them, so much so that I felt I should offer them a drink when pausing to make a cuppa. A emotional roller coaster of a book but I knew it would be, I laughed more then I cried but that's the way with Sir Terry's books, there could of been only one person to continue his biography and I'm glad Rob got the chance to do so. Deserves more then 5 stars!!!

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It was this fear that drove him to put up on the wall of his office a large picture of WH Smith’s book-pulping machine. It was there, he said, to remind him to write a better book. Before his untimely death, Terry was writing a memoir: the story of a boy who aged six was told by his teacher that he would never amount to anything and spent the rest of his life proving him wrong. For Terry lived a life full of astonishing achievements: becoming one of the UK's bestselling and most beloved writers, winning the prestigious Carnegie Medal and being awarded a knighthood. Sometimes joyfully, sometimes painfully, intimate . . . it is wonderful to have this closeup picture of the writer's working life.' - Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Observer

Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes; The Official Biography

Then, I grinned at how then British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, served Terry tea and biscuits in the Cabinet Office after he had submitted a petition on behalf of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust for more funding for research into dementia.

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Flabbergastingly, there were also quite some history lessons in this book. I, for example, had not known there was a nuclear incident scaled 5-out-of-7 in Pennsylvania in the 70s (as a European, I mostly heard about Chernobyl and the much later incident at Fukushima but not much else). It’s this kind of added value that make this shine even brighter. Terry Pratchett had a magic hat. In fact, he had a collection of them, assiduously acquired over many years from the stores of some of the world’s leading milliners, from London to New York, and from Sydney to Burford, in England’s Cotswolds, where a shop called Elm offers a good selection. In my fifteen years as his personal assistant, I shopped for hats with Terry a lot because he considered it one of life’s reliable axioms: ‘Any day with a new hat in it is a very good day indeed.’ " Rob Wilkins, Terry Pratchett’s former assistant and friend, is writing the official biography of the late Discworld author, which will move from his childhood to the “embuggerance” of the Alzheimer’s disease he was diagnosed with in 2007. Sometimes joyfully, sometimes painfully, intimate . . . it is wonderful to have this closeup picture of the writer’s working life.’ — Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Observer