Sir Terry Pratchett, renowned author, dies aged 66
Terry Pratchett lost his long battle with Alzheimer’s after he was diagnosed with the disease in 2007, and was public about his battle, which he called an ‘embuggerance’ as he bravely battled. His twitter account announced the news in poetic fashion, the final tweet being, “The End.”
Pratchett was a fantasy author who wrote over 70 books, and was famous for his satire and his wit, and was a much loved British author, second read only to JK Rowling. He was most famed for his ‘discworld’ series, which was based on a flat world, sat on the back of 4 elephants, which were perched on the back of a giant turtle. He wrote over 40 instalments of the series, and at his peak was writing 3 books a year.
In 2009 Terry Pratchett was awarded a knighthood for services to literature, and was addressing the response he had gotten from announcing he had Alzheimer’s, “It would appear to me that me getting up and saying 'I've got Alzheimer's', it did shake people."
Pratchett was always known for his sharp wit and sense of humour even in adversity, and perhaps one of his most brilliant examples is the t-shirt he used to wear to conventions. It read “Tolkien is dead, JK Rowling said no, Philip Pullman couldn’t make it, Hi I’m Terry Pratchett.”
