Terry Pratchett - A Life With Footnotes

 Terry Pratchett – A Life with Footnotes by Rob Wilkins (2022 Doubleday paperback 438pp)

 

Upfront I have to say that I have never been a massive Terry Pratchett fan – not that I dislike his writing or anything. I just have never gone down the rabbit hole of fandom like so many of his avid readers seem to have. The first I heard of him as an author was in a review of The Colour of Magic published in the now long-defunct Space Voyagers magazine back in the early 1980s. The reviewer thought this was, at last, the fantasy answer to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and predicted big things ahead for the author. I must have read that magazine cover to cover several times as I normally did with overseas magazines in those days – there was still something rare and exotic in finding a publication that reflected your interests. So, Pratchett became ingrained in my mind but it was some time before I actually read his fiction – I think I found his two pre-Discworld novels in the local library, read them without getting too excited and moved on. It was probably close to twenty years later that I actually start reading the series he was most famous for, and then I stopped a few books in as other shiny objects came my way. Some people, as I mentioned above, have become absolute fanatics about the Discworld series and the world(s) Pratchett created. By all accounts he was a thoroughly decent human being and that has factored into the popularity leading to sales in the millions.

Rob Wilkins spent 15 years as Pratchett’s personal assistant and eventually close friend and the mighty task to write “The Official Biography” has fallen upon his shoulders. Notes previous written or dictated by Pratchett form the framework of this very workman-like effort.

Roughly the first half of the book tells the story of a life from childhood through to becoming a full-time writer. School days, friends and nay-saying teachers are vividly recalled. Its fascinating to learn of his path from teenage SF fan (and published writer at age 15) through journalism and then the PR industry (promoting nuclear power of all things). Good relationships in the publishing industry and a lot of luck lead to growing success once he dives head-first into creating Discworld.

Wilkins writes all this with a lot of warmth and affection towards his subject and this continues in the second half of the book which mainly chronicles the years they worked closely together. The origin of most of his work (he often had ideas for multiple stories in his head and in randomly-saved computer files, cherry-picking from them all as he wrote), book tours and fan conventions get covered and it all seems to be snowballing into a massive enterprise beyond the personal control Pratchett preferred.

Wilkins paints a picture of fun-filled work days as the pair mucked around as much as they created. Pratchett’s family and friends get recurring walk-on roles but its mainly the man himself at the centre of focus.

When Pratchett’s health began to fail (he developed a fairly rare form of Alzheimer’s disease), things become a bit more serious. The final chapters are quite moving and I felt an odd deep sadness for a man I never knew personally.

Pratchett was it seems a thoroughly admirable man. He raged against injustice and used that rage to fuel social satire in his novels. When he became wealthy, he used his money to help others. He always engaged with his fans and stood up for them against snobs who would dismiss them with a snide remark. If he actually had a dark side, we don’t learn much about it in this volume. I won’t call it a hagiography but it is clear Wilkins still thinks extremely highly of the man (who died in 2015) and any blot on the record was a momentary lapse, easily excused.

If you’re a fan you’ll most likely already own this book and probably don’t need me to recommend it. I enjoyed dipping in and out of this book over a couple weeks of reading. The detailed discussion of some of the individual books makes me want to go read them and explore the fruits of Pratchett’s mind further.