Terry Pratchett interview in Times

31 January 2009 (12:44) Other Terry Pratchett Books Other Novels Alzheimer's Nation Interviews Tiffany Aching News Terry Pratchett Discworld Books News Archives

An interview with Terry Pratchett published January 25 on TimesOnline.co.uk discusses his experience with Alzheimer’s in the past year and his recently awarded knighthood. To quote the article:

Sir Terry Pratchett cannot help wondering why it was this year - after 30 years as a bestselling writer - that he was honoured with a knighthood: ‘All I know is that on the citation it says ‘for services to literature’, and it would be nice to think that that got me the knighthood - though it may have been for what I stood up for and what I’ve done for Alzheimer’s.’ All in all, Pratchett is treating his recent knighthood with modesty: ‘I am 60. I know exactly who I am,’ he says. ‘I am just me - which is why it’s slightly amusing to be addressed by the postman as ‘Sir Terry”….

When he describes living with Alzheimer’s as ‘a minor flaw in a good, though complicated, year - without it, it would have been a fairly anodyne one’, you can’t help feeling he is underselling his recent literary achievements. Nation, his new book, was an instant bestseller; his Discworld series celebrated its 25th anniversary; and he was at work on two new titles: Unseen Academicals and I Shall Wear Midnight….

“As a science-fiction writer, [knighthood] is an achievement. Despite its popularity, sci-fi is still a ghetto genre. So when a hand of welcome comes from the Establishment, you can do nothing but shake it.”