News Archives

Second Life event: Gala Ball in celebration of Pratchett’s knighthood

7 January 2009 (16:25) Comment!

The Second Life group responsible for creating the virtual Ankh-Morpork is hosting a Gala Ball in honor of Terry Pratchett’s knighthood on January 17, 2009.

The first Irish Discworld Convention (IDWCon ‘09) to be held November 2009!

2 January 2009 (13:50) Comment!

The first Irish Discworld Convention has been announced recently. It will be held November 6-9 2009 in the Falls Hotel, Ennistymon, Co. Clare in Ireland.

The organizers, Mary-Ellen and Nicola Murphy, are looking for volunteers. If interested, email them at info@idwcon.org.

Retro News: Pratchett’s fan updates October-December 2008; health “stable”; documentary “looks pretty good”; Unseen Academicals finished by May?

1 January 2009 (15:02) Comment!

Since October, Terry Pratchett has posted three updates on PJSMPrints, all of which contain a wealth of information about his writing progress, the media interest in Terry Pratchett The Alzheimer’s Patient, the documentary Living With Alzheimer’s, and so on.

To quote Pratchett’s October update (scroll down at the link):

At last some progress is being made on Unseen Academicals since we got through the making of the BBC2 documentary and all the alternative calls on my time that seemed to have filled the past year. Today, for example, I have nothing to do but write and Rob and I were just mentioning how odd it is to have a day which does not involve some kind of travel, meeting, or interview. In fact Rob is about to interview me right now:

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Living With Alzheimer’s to air in February?

1 January 2009 (14:28) Comment!

Despite our previous report that Living With Alzheimer’s would air in January, Sandra Kidby of PJSMPrints announced that the documentary time slot is “almost certainly going to be Wednesday 4th February at 9 p.m., with part two following a week later.”

The documentary consists of two hour-long parts, and follows Terry Pratchett as he learns about the disease and deals with the “embuggerance.”

Living With Alzheimer’s is produced by IWC Media and BBC2, and will air as part of a documentary series about mental health and mental health related issues.

Welcome to the Year Of The Pensive Hare!

1 January 2009 (1:25) Comment!

Terry Pratchett, in a celebratory news post about his recent knighthood, wished his fans a “Happy New Year, which on Discworld is the Year of the Pensive Hare.”

A look back at the top *ate* news items of 200*ate*:

• As part of the launch of a new study in the stigma associated with Alzheimer’s, Out Of The Shadows, Terry Pratchett wrote an essay describing his experiences with Alzheimer’s published by the Daily Mail.
• 2008 marked the 25th anniversary of the publication of Colour Of Magic.
• No author besides Terry Pratchett has more than one book on a list of “evergreen” titles–titles that have never fallen out of the top 5,000 bestseller chart since 1995, earning him the title “‘evergreen’ king.”
• The Discworld Convention 2008, with a time monks theme, duly convened as scheduled.
• Of course, the news broke that Terry Pratchett made the Queen’s Honours list for this new year’s. In response to the honor, Terry Pratchett said, “I’m very grateful and pleased on behalf of the genre because the fantasy genre lags behind the crime genre in, shall we say, appreciation.”
• Nation came out, to rave reviews.
• The Colour Of Magic, the TV adaptation of the first two books in the Discworld series, finished airing for the first time March 24 in the U.K. to good reviews.
• Terry Pratchett donated $1 million to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, deploring the lack of funding for research and support for those affected by the disease. This high-profile donation gave rise to the Match It For Pratchett campaign.

So all that’s left is to wish everyone a very happy year of the pensive hare!

Announcing Sir Terry (Article Updated And Revised)

31 December 2008 (20:40) Comment!

Queen Elizabeth II’s annual New Year honors list includes Terry Pratchett, who was named a Knight Bachelor for services to literature earlier today (Wednesday in the U.K.).

Pratchett has previously been named an Officer Of The British Empire (OBE).

This comes after a failed petition in August 2007 to award Pratchett the honor of knighthood.

Terry Pratchett responded to the announcement by saying, “there are times when phrases such as ‘totally astonished’ just don’t do the job….I am of course delighted and honored and — needless to say — flabbergasted.”

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Announcing Sir Terry

30 December 2008 (15:37) Comment!

Queen Elizabeth II’s annual New Year honors list includes Terry Pratchett, who was named a knight earlier today (Wednesday in the U.K.).

This comes after a failed petition in August 2007 to award Pratchett the honor of knighthood.

Terry Pratchett responded to the announcement by saying, “there are times when phrases such as ‘totally astonished’ just don’t do the job….I am of course delighted and honored and — needless to say — flabbergasted.”
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Signed novel raises £760 for Alzheimer’s Society

29 December 2008 (13:30) 1 Comment

Terry Pratchett donated a signed copy of Making Money to an auction for the New Forest branch of the Alzheimer’s Society. The book was auctioned off for £760.

This article quotes Terry Pratchett as saying, “I am, along with many others, scrabbling to stay ahead long enough to be there when the cure comes along…. It is a shock to find out that funding for Alzheimer’s research is just 3% of that to find cancer cures.”

Nullus Anxietas (Australian convention 2009) updates: convention ticket sale, Gala Dinner tickets available

28 December 2008 (20:48) 1 Comment

Nullus Anxietas, the Australian Discworld convention 2009, is offering tickets $15 off for the holiday season, with the offer ending the 31st of December. Additionally, the Gala Dinner tickets (which are bought separately) are now on sale.

A preliminary program can be seen at the Nullus Anxietas website.

Another update: Here’s a video promoting the convention:

Nullus Anxietas from Snowgum Films on Vimeo.

Living With Alzheimer’s to air in January; more information about Alzheimer’s documentary

28 December 2008 (20:15) Comment!

After hearing about the Alzheimer’s documentary (full title Terry Pratchett: Living With Alzheimer’s) off-and-on for almost a year, MedicalNewsToday.com has lots of information as to when the documentary will be aired and what it will contain.

The IWC Media-produced documentary will be aired in January on BBC Two, UK, as part of a documentary series focused on mental health called BBC Headroom.
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Retro News: Pratchett interview, in which he actually talks about things other than Alzheimer’s (29 November 2008)

28 December 2008 (19:57) Comment!

Deborah Orr at the Independent.co.uk interviewed Terry Pratchett late in November, and in doing so provides some insight into Terry Pratchett’s writing process.

The article gets the requisite Alzheimer’s questions done early. Terry Pratchett summed up the effect of his very public diagnosis:
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Retro News: Pratchett opens RICE headquarters (05 December)

28 December 2008 (19:15) Comment!

Terry Pratchett helped open the new £2 million headquarters of RICE (the Research Institute For The Care Of Older People, formally the Research Into The Care Of The Elderly) in the Royal United Hospital on December 5th, 2008.

In the ceremony he unveiled a plaque, cut the ribbon and continued his campaign for the public awareness of the need for research into Alzheimer’s.

Pratchett said, of his role in the opening, “I have first hand knowledge of the work of the institute and am delighted to be formally opening the new building in Bath.”
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Terry Pratchett owns Beard Of The Year?

28 December 2008 (19:01) Comment!

The informal Beard Liberation Front has announced their nominations for Beard Of The Year 2008, and Terry Pratchett is included in the list. Other competitors are singer Jarvis Cocker, comedian Eddie Izzard, singer Tom Jones, former football player Roy Keane, Archbishop Of Canterbury Rowan Williams, and Wikipedia creator Jimmy Wales.

The prize, according to the Beard Liberation Front, highlights beard-wearers who give beards a positive public image, and is awarded based on votes from members of the Front. The winner will be announced tomorrow, December 29.

Previous winners include Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin, in 2007.

Edit: It has now been announced that singer Tom Jones and Archbishop Of Canterbury Rowan Williams both won the title for 2008.

Retro News: Pratchett interview (08 November 2008)

28 December 2008 (18:07) Comment!

In a Daily Mail interview titled I’m not beaten yet: Terry Prachett on the frustration and fury of Alzheimer’s, Terry Pratchett shared with the interviewer some more about his attitude towards the “embuggerance” of Alzheimer’s. To quote the article:

Although he calls it a ‘wretched disease’, since disclosing that he has it, he has retained his dark sense of comedy. He began an address to his latest convention of fans by cracking a joke. ‘I said, “Hello my name is…” Then I retrieved a crumpled piece of paper from my pocket and read out my name,’ he recalls.

The audience laughed because Terry, afflicted by an illness that steals both memory and identity, was permitting them to do so.

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Retro News: Pratchett delivers Alzheimer’s funding petition (26 November 2008)

28 December 2008 (13:04) Comment!

On November 26, 2008, as part of his ongoing Alzheimer’s public awareness campaign, Terry Pratchett delivered a petition to Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Downing Street asking the government to increase funding for Alzheimer’s research. In his speech, Pratchett explains why Alzheimer’s research is so important:

Nearly everybody I have talked to around the country talks about caring for their mother or father with the disease, so it seems there is not a family in the land that hasn’t been affected, yet it is like a huge secret everybody shares.

Because Alzheimer’s affects the brain we have some real difficulties about it.

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Danny Boyle: Truckers film “a victim of this economic crisis”

28 December 2008 (12:31) Comment!

Several sources are reporting that Danny Boyle, who had previously planned to direct Truckers, has said that the project has been canceled. In a Q & A with SeattlePi.com, Danny Boyle said, “I’ve been developing a film based on the first book of Terry Pratchett’s Bromeliad Trilogy. But the project seems to have fallen apart — a victim of this economic crisis that’s not supposed to be affecting the movie business.”

New Discworld miniatures of Death, Weatherwax, Vimes, Ogg, Rincewind

27 December 2008 (17:45) Comment!

Micro Art Studio is now issuing a series of Discworld miniatures. Miniatures of Death, Granny Weatherwax, Sam Vimes, Nanny Ogg, and Rincewind are already available.

Miniatures of Nobby Nobbs and the Luggage are planned.

The miniatures are based on the artwork of Paul Kidby. According to Micro Art Studio, the miniatures are “30 mm scale high quality metal cast” miniatures and are sold unpainted.

Second Life event: Hogswatch party

27 December 2008 (13:56) Comment!

The Ankh-Morpork Experience, the group of fans on Second Life who built a virtual Ankh-Morpork, is hosting a Hogswatch ball starting at 1 p.m. SLT (Pacific Time Zone). A message sent out to the Ankh-Morpork Experience group members said:

Don’t forget the ball today , discworlders. 1pm SLT until late at the Ankh Morpork sim.

The Hogfather, DJ’s, live performances, and who know what else might turn up! Anything can happen and probably will.
Kahlan Docherty has graciously donated 1000 L as the prize for the most imaginative Discworld costume, so it has been decided to divide this between the best male and best female costumes. It’s time to get wracking your brains and your inventories!

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