Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett commemorative stamps available on eBay

27 March 2009 (17:58) Comment!

Two fans and artists of Terry Pratchett’s writings have created a set of commemorative stamps celebrating Pratchett’s life. The stampsheets are available now on eBay (or by emailing sirterry@stampsmyth.com). Here is the info, straight from the artists’ mouths:

We are Alan Batley and Colin Edwards, two fans of Terry Pratchett and his books from the UK, and two of the artists who worked with Terry on the very first Discworld stamps which you may know from the inside cover of the Going Postal hardback.

We thought it would be a fitting tribute to produce a set of commemorative stamps that celebrated Terry’s great achievements, and were thrilled that after receiving permission (and a lot of assistance with the details) from Terry’s agent Colin Smythe, he suggested that a framed copy of our work should be presented to Sir Terry at the lunch that followed his knighthood.

The 3 stamps celebrate:
40 Years of Published Writing
25 Years of Discworld novels
and his 60th Year, culminating in his Knighthood at Buckingham Palace.

In order to give Terry the very best quality of printing, Alan and I had to buy a small print run of the stampsheets and we are now trying to sell the remaining sheets of stamps to help pay for the printing and perforation of the stamps. A proportion of the royalties from the sales will be donated to Alzheimers charities in the East Anglia region; Alan’s mother had the disease.

We do not have a shop or website so we are selling these on eBay. The item details are at… http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250376103054&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=015

The artwork features an illustration of a very young Terry, based on Colin Smythe’s archive photographs of Terry at the launch of The Carpet People at the very start of his commissioned writing career; and Terry’s early signature from those days.

The central image is of Great Atuin, and the Discworld flying through space, celebrating the 25 years of Discworld novels.

The third stamp in the sequence is of Sir Terry as we all know him today in his trademark black hat and carries the modern signature we are more familiar with today.

Each stamp minisheet is presented with a numbered, certificate of authenticity dated on the day of Terry’s knighthood, signed by both of us, and hand stamped with a silver Great Atuin.

We hope you will take time to have a look at the listing, and might support a couple of fans who wanted to celebrate Sir Terry’s knighthood in an appropriate way, if you do not have an eBay account you can contact us at sirterry@stampsmyth.com for further details.

Thank you and congratulations again SIR Terry! Your recognition for services to literature has been long overdue.

Pictures!
http://s676.photobucket.com/albums/vv125/stampsmyth/?action=view&current=triptychcloseupRGB.jpg
http://s676.photobucket.com/albums/vv125/stampsmyth/?action=view&current=1minisheetcard2lores.jpg
http://s676.photobucket.com/albums/vv125/stampsmyth/?action=view&current=1lotsofminisheets.jpg]

Good Omens is Audible.co.uk’s Audiobook Download Of The Year

26 March 2009 (21:51) 1 Comment

Nearly twenty years after it was first published, which book is still a phenomenon? Good Omens, of course. The Neil Gaiman-Terry Pratchett collaboration, narrated by Stephen Briggs, was voted the 2008 winner of the annual Audible.co.uk Audiobook Download Of The Year awards. Sir Terry received his award at a The Athenaeum, Pall Mall, London at a luncheon just after being formally knighted by Her Majesty.

This news is a bit late, but I thought it was still newsworthy all the same.

Thanks to Colin Smythe for the information.

Terry Pratchett interview in Times

31 January 2009 (12:44) 1 Comment

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.”

Pratchett helps launch Science: So What? campaign

28 January 2009 (9:41) Comment!

U.K. science minister Lord Drayson invited Terry Pratchett and other celebrities to meet ministers in Downing Street today to launch the new Science: So What? So Everything campaign.

The campaign wants to promote science as relevant to citizens’ everyday lives and dispel the notion that science is too difficult or only for elitists.

“Continued success in science and technology is vital to our future,” said Lord Drayson, and yet there is still a perception among many of our people that science is too clever for them or elitist in some way.”

Other celebrities invited along with Pratchett are writer Bill Bryson and celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal.

Pratchett uses anti-dementia helmet

11 January 2009 (11:39) 1 Comment

TheNorthernEcho.co.uk reports on an untested anti-dementia device that Pratchett has adopted in his attempt to slow down the development of dementia.

Fans may remember this–or something similar–being mentioned in a November interview.

To quote the TheNorthernEcho.co.uk article:

The prototype anti-dementia helmet was invented by County Durham GP, Dr Gordon Dougal, who spends most of his time seeing patients with coughs and colds at surgeries in Spennymoor and Peterlee.

Dr Dougal is convinced that this device, which works by directing intense bursts of light of a particular wavelength into a patient’s skull, could help thousands of people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia…. Sir Terry, author of the Discworld series of novels, contacted Dr Dougal last year and asked to try the helmet.

… Until now [Dr. Dougal] has kept silent about Sir Terry’s interest in the new helmet, but now feels able to tell the story.

“When Sir Terry’s people contacted me I was very happy to help,” he says. “We made another prototype helmet and he has had that since last August.”

To ensure the helmet was a good fit, a friend of Sir Terry made a cast of the author’s head and, to allow him to use it for the standard six minutes a day recommended by Dr Dougal, the helmet was clamped to the back of an armchair at the writer’s cottage home.

Sir Terry was assessed by a computer programme designed to show up signs of dementia at the start of the treatment and after three months of daily exposure to the light rays.

The result showed a small, but measurable, improvement in his condition. More importantly, says Dr Dougal, the computer could find no signs of further deterioration during this period.

… Dr Dougal is encouraged by Sir Terry’s experiences of the light-emitting helmet, but acknowledges that he will have to wait for a clinical trial before the device is widely accepted.

Ian Stewart, Science Of Discworld collaborator and honorary Unseen University wizard, writes a best seller

10 January 2009 (15:41) Comment!

Ian Stewart, who you might remember collaborated with Terry Pratchett and Jack Cohen on the Acience Of Discworld books, was recently featured by the CoventryTelegraph.net, which notes that the Warwick University professor has since written Cabinet Of Mathematical Curiosities, which has sold well this holiday season.

The book uses as a source notebooks full of mathematical notes Stewart has been keeping since he was 14, and consists of 180 math problems.

Terry Pratchett interview in the Irish Times

8 January 2009 (23:49) Comment!

Donal Clarke of the Irish Times interviewed Terry Pratchett when he was in Dublin for his honorary degree from Trinity College in mid-December, and just recently released the article. Terry Pratchett talks about his characteristic hat:

“There’s no significance to the hat,” he says in his focused way. “I just happened to see it in a shop one day and thought: ‘Bing! I am going to have a hat like that.’ Charlie Chaplin always said that there was no great plan to his image. He just looked into a wardrobe and saw this bowler hat, baggy pants and a cane.”

He also spoke of his Alzheimer’s campaigning:

“I do feel like something of a fraud,” he laughs. “I am sitting here talking to you and I guarantee that you would not guess there is anything wrong with me. What I have is posterior cortical atrophy, an early onset form of Alzheimer’s that happens on the rear of the brain. You have a whole bridge hand of problems, but initially they are all to do with visual acuity or sight in general.” … “Several people have told me I have been getting better recently,” he says. “Well, unless there has been a minor miracle that has not really been happening, but I am learning to cope. There is not really the language to explain how it affects me. I have to think before approaching a revolving door. My typing has got quite bad and my spelling has deteriorated. I also have a problem with my short-term memory.” He pauses and plays with his teacup.

“I also have a problem with my short-term memory. And then there’s my short-term . . . ” Yes, yes, yes. I can see where this is going.

Asked about his view of Death as described in the books and whether it’s changed since his diagnosis, he responded:

“No. I wouldn’t say I have changed my view,” he says. “Death is not a buffoon in the books. He’s still Death, but he has a certain amount of compassion. As he points out, it is the falling rock, the microbe or the bullet that kills you. Death’s job is just to take you away.”

He also says something we’ve never heard before about his rise to prominence in his early writing career:

“The Colour of Magic was serialised on Woman’s Hour and that brought some attention,” he said. “When I wrote the second one I really began to sense something moving out there. Later, I remember being summoned to my boss’s office at the CEGB. He had three of my books in front of him and he said: ‘Did you write these?’ I thought I was in trouble, then he asked me to sign them for his sons.” Pratchett quit the job shortly afterwards.

He also spoke about the marginalization of fantasy in literary circles:

“Alternate worlds are now the stuff of Booker winners, but they call it ‘magic realism’ not that ‘awful fantasy stuff’,” he says.

And he reiterates the fact that not all of his fans are 14-year-olds named Kevin (as the runners of this site can attest to):

“The first thing I would say is that 70 per cent of the people who come to my conventions are female,” Pratchett retorts. “Look, the stereotype lacks any accuracy. The stereotype fan is a 14-year-old in an anorak called Kevin. If that ever was true then Kevin is now long married to Daphne and he is beginning to wish he’d started his pension plan a little earlier. If you have parents who are Discworld fans then you will, most likely, be surrounded by books. Fantasy fans tend to read everything.”

And about the media interest in what is Britain’s most high-profile Alzheimer’s patient:

“Now, if somebody phones up and says, ‘I am from Radio WANK, tell me about Alz-heimer’s’, then I know they just want to fill an hour with Pratchett. I tell them to piss off. But it never occurred to me not to announce it.”

There’s much more in the article itself, including a powerful observation: “They say, ‘Don’t let them see you bleed’. But I say, ‘If you let them see you bleed then one of them might offer you a bandage’.”

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:

(more…)

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.”

(more…)

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.”
(more…)

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.”

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.
(more…)

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.”
(more…)

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.

(more…)