Discworld Writer Terry Pratchett Dies At 66
By Hohum CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Sir Terence David John ‘Terry’ Pratchett, best known for his brilliant Discworld series, has passed away, Larry Finlay, MD at Transworld Publishers has confirmed.
“I was deeply saddened to learn that Sir Terry Pratchett has died. The world has lost one of its brightest, sharpest minds.
In over 70 books, Terry enriched the planet like few before him. As all who read him know, Discworld was his vehicle to satirize this world: he did so brilliantly, with great skill, enormous humour and constant invention. 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.
My sympathies go out to Terry’s wife Lyn, their daughter Rhianna, to his close friend Rob Wilkins, and to all closest to him. Terry passed away in his home, with his cat sleeping on his bed surrounded by his family on 12th March 2015. Diagnosed with PCA[1] in 2007, he battled the progressive disease with his trademark determination and creativity, and continued to write.
He completed his last book, a new Discworld novel, in the summer of 2014, before succumbing to the final stages of the disease.”
Pratchett published his first novel The Carpet People in 1971, and his first Discword novel The Colour of Magic in 1983. He has written around 40 volumes of his worldwide loved series and has sold more than 85 million books around the world in 37 languages.
Pratchett was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours.
Goodbye, Sir. You will be missed!
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
