While I was interviewing local author, Richard Hardie (author of Leap of Faith and Trouble with Swords), we discussed favourite books and writers. Then came the sad announcement of Sir Terry Pratchett’s death after a long battle with a rare form of Alzheimer’s.
Richard and I share a huge admiration for the Discworld novels. What follows below is what came out of my initial interview with Richard and it was felt this could stand alone as a local appreciation of one of the finest and funniest writers this country has ever produced.
My full interview with Richard will appear on Friday and which I hope will shed a light on a writer’s life.
Books by Sir Terry Pratchett. Image by David Muir via Flickr.
Any Discworld novel release was a highlight of our reading year and will be much missed by both Richard and I. Whether you read the books or listen to the audio books, it is our view that for wit, Sir Terry Pratchett led the field.
Why the devotion to Sir Terry and Discworld?
Richard Hardie and I share a great love for the Discworld novels. The humour is a joy and the characters are wonderful.
Any writer who can make heroes out of dwarves, female werewolves (Angua has such good hair!), reformed rogues and drunks (Moist Von Lipwig and Samuel Vimes), a robust University Master (Mustrum Ridcully) and witches (Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg) must have something going for them!
Sir Terry Pratchett on Discworld May Day 2010. Image by Steve James via Flickr.
P.G. Wodehouse is the only other humorous writer who invented more than one set of major characters and produced wonderful stories out of them. (The obvious ones are Jeeves and Wooster but there are Uncle Fred, Lord Emsworth, Mr Mulliner and Ukridge as well).
The likes of Sir Terry and Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse show that humorous writing has depth, can get points across far better than “straight, serious” novels and can inspire other writers to flesh out their characters more and improve their stories.
Writers learn a lot by reading how other writers do it and the best hints of all to any would-be writer are to read across genres, write, not give up and always read from the best. You want to learn from the best.
Sir Terry was one of the best and his works will live on. That probably is the best tribute to him.
Sir Terry Pratchett. Image by Steve James via Flickr.
Questions and answers with Richard Hardie regarding Sir Terry Pratchett
Allison: We both share a love for Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series for their humour and wonderful characters. What is your favourite Pratchett character and why? Likewise, what is your favourite Discworld novel and why? I would nominate Samuel Vimes (and also Willikins, his butler. Think Jeeves with attitude!). My favourite novel is probably Men At Arms where I feel Vimes really begins to take off as a character.
Richard: Choosing one Terry Pratchett character over so many wonderful ones would be next to impossible, though (Commander Samuel) Vimes has to be a worthy candidate. His character has evolved superbly through the series and his cynical sobriety is always a joy.
The Night Watch has always been one of my favourite Pratchett books, though all his books are great. It’s a major testament to Terry all of his 50 odd books are very much in print and selling well. None have been remaindered.
Sir Terry Pratchett. Image by Steve James via Flickr.
Allison: The best compliments to a writer are:
Your books sell consistently well, or
Your books are consistently borrowed in huge numbers from libraries, or
Your books are consistently nicked from bookshops. You’d only pinch works you’d want to read!
At one point Sir Terry was the most shoplifted author in the UK. A definite category (c) there!
The Gang Show and Sir Terry Pratchett
Richard: I managed to get Terry to work with me on one of the Gang Shows and we ended up co-writing one of the scenes in which he agreed to film on video so we could show it every night.
Richard Hardie at a book signing event. Richard and Sir Terry Pratchett worked together on one of the Gang Shows together.
It was a kidnap scene and we got the press to run a Who Kidnapped Terry Pratchett? story for a couple of weeks up to the opening night.
It was great publicity from a great guy. One evening as I was driving him home, I asked Terry Pratchett whether it was getting harder to think of new plots after having written so many books.
He said that it wasn’t because his characters are so well constructed now, that he tends to choose around 10 main ones and their personalities will tend to dictate the story based on a minor plotline. He reckons it gets easier the more books he writes.
Inventing characters
Allison: Is there a character you would love to have invented yourself? If so, who and why?
Richard: I would have loved to have invented any of Terry Pratchett’s characters and I must admit I do have three witches in one of my books, though they are rather different from Terry’s ladies of that ilk.
The finest, funniest writer
Allison: I believe Sir Terry Pratchett was the finest funny writer this country has produced since P.G. Wodehouse. The range and depth of Pratchett’s characters were amazing and sustained over 50+ books, a magnificent achievement.
For fellow fans, my favourite characters were Death, Vimes, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Moist Von Lipwig and Mustrum Ridcully. Discworld will live on long after its creator.
Our wonderful library does stock his books so if you wanted to try before you buy, I can’t recommend Chandler’s Ford Library highly enough.
Now over to you!
For fellow Terry fans, why not write in with your favourite Discworld books and characters? If there is enough response, it might be fun to compile a top ten.
Credit: feature image adapted from “Terry Pratchett kindly posed with his hat for Myrmi”. By Myrmi via Wikimedia Commons.
I'm a published flash fiction and short story writer, as well as a blogger. My fiction work has appeared in anthologies from Cafelit and Bridge House Publishing.
My first flash fiction collection, From Light to Dark and Back Again, was published by Chapeltown Books in 2017.
My follow-up, Tripping the Flash Fantastic, was published by Chapeltown Books in 2020.
I adore the works of many authors but my favourites are Jane Austen, P.G. Wodehouse and Terry Pratchett.
I like to describe my fiction as fairytales with bite.
I also write for Writers' Narrative magazine and am one of their editors. I am a freelance editor separately and have had many short stories published online and in anthologies.
I started reading Terry Pratchett when The Colour of Magic came out. Then I read nearly all of his books: interesting characters, funny word play. Most of his characters have some sort of flaws, which makes them interesting.
Two of my favourite books are Good Omens (by by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett), and Nation.
I have a magazine The Wizard’s Knob signed by Terry Pratchett. (He signed many books, possibly the unsigned ones are more valuable!)
My favourite Rincewind novel is Interesting Times (and it’s good to meet Twoflower again as well). I agree with you about the character flaws. This is why Vimes is my favourite character. He knows he’s flawed!
As for the unsigned books being more valuable, I’m sitting on a small fortune at home! I had the privilege of twice seeing Terry Pratchett speak at the Winchester Guildhall, which is a lovely building too. Had the whole place in the palm of his hand (which is always a good trick if you can do it).
Will make a note of your book nominees. I hope there’s a nice broad choice.
I have read most of the Discworld novels and enjoyed all of them, with the exception of The Hogfather (though I can’t remember why I didn’t like it). Vimes and Granny Weatherwax would be two of my favourite characters. Ialso love the Wee Free Men. One of the best novels must be Going Postal.
Going Postal is my favourite Moist Von Lipwig book. Any novel that can start with its hero in real trouble with the Patrician and from then on it gets interesting has to be a fantastic book. You guess Moist Von Lipwig has to get through but I read on to find out how and to see if he could become a reformed character. I was totally gripped by this book and I often re-read it. Granny Weatherwax could face down anything (and has!).
I’m sad to think there will never be another Terry Pratchett novel to look forwards to. A new one was the highlight of our reading year and the hardback would be passed around the family till we had all read it. Unlike other authors, his works improve on a second or third reading as you find bits you hadn’t appreciated first time round.
My husband and I met Terry at a Science Fiction Convention many moons ago. He was sitting at a table in the bar, we asked if we could buy him a pint as we were fans and we sat with him and chatted for about 20 mins. He was really sweet and by the time we left he had a whole circle of admirers listening to him chat.
Did you know that web Servers around the world are including the string “X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett” on their headers? (In Going Postal a dead operator was remembered on the clacks with a similar message, the GNU meaning it should be circulated forever.) This doesn’t appear when you go on the Server but is sent to your computer each time you log on. Fans have produced a version of this for every operating system and you can add a piece of software which will display a tiny “clacks lantern” in the corner of your web browser if you are connected to one of these servers.
And Terry will be remembered as long as the Internet lasts…
Many thanks for your comments, Cecily, and for sharing your memories of meeting the great man. I never had that privilege but did go to hear him speak twice at a packed Winchester Guildhall (which is a lovely building incidentally). He held the audience enthralled and there was a lot of laughter, which I’m sure won’t come as a surprise. I did know about the web servers and thought it was a fabulous idea to remember Terry that way.
Perhaps you can say who your favourite character was and why. Maybe favourite book too. If there is enough response, it would be nice to compile a top ten for this site. Will keep this open for the next few weeks or so.
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A wonderful man, sadly leaving us.
I started reading Terry Pratchett when The Colour of Magic came out. Then I read nearly all of his books: interesting characters, funny word play. Most of his characters have some sort of flaws, which makes them interesting.
Two of my favourite books are Good Omens (by by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett), and Nation.
I have a magazine The Wizard’s Knob signed by Terry Pratchett. (He signed many books, possibly the unsigned ones are more valuable!)
My favourite Rincewind novel is Interesting Times (and it’s good to meet Twoflower again as well). I agree with you about the character flaws. This is why Vimes is my favourite character. He knows he’s flawed!
As for the unsigned books being more valuable, I’m sitting on a small fortune at home! I had the privilege of twice seeing Terry Pratchett speak at the Winchester Guildhall, which is a lovely building too. Had the whole place in the palm of his hand (which is always a good trick if you can do it).
Will make a note of your book nominees. I hope there’s a nice broad choice.
I have read most of the Discworld novels and enjoyed all of them, with the exception of The Hogfather (though I can’t remember why I didn’t like it). Vimes and Granny Weatherwax would be two of my favourite characters. Ialso love the Wee Free Men. One of the best novels must be Going Postal.
Going Postal is my favourite Moist Von Lipwig book. Any novel that can start with its hero in real trouble with the Patrician and from then on it gets interesting has to be a fantastic book. You guess Moist Von Lipwig has to get through but I read on to find out how and to see if he could become a reformed character. I was totally gripped by this book and I often re-read it. Granny Weatherwax could face down anything (and has!).
I’m sad to think there will never be another Terry Pratchett novel to look forwards to. A new one was the highlight of our reading year and the hardback would be passed around the family till we had all read it. Unlike other authors, his works improve on a second or third reading as you find bits you hadn’t appreciated first time round.
My husband and I met Terry at a Science Fiction Convention many moons ago. He was sitting at a table in the bar, we asked if we could buy him a pint as we were fans and we sat with him and chatted for about 20 mins. He was really sweet and by the time we left he had a whole circle of admirers listening to him chat.
Did you know that web Servers around the world are including the string “X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett” on their headers? (In Going Postal a dead operator was remembered on the clacks with a similar message, the GNU meaning it should be circulated forever.) This doesn’t appear when you go on the Server but is sent to your computer each time you log on. Fans have produced a version of this for every operating system and you can add a piece of software which will display a tiny “clacks lantern” in the corner of your web browser if you are connected to one of these servers.
And Terry will be remembered as long as the Internet lasts…
There is an article here: BBC News – Web servers enrolled in Pratchett tribute.
Many thanks for your comments, Cecily, and for sharing your memories of meeting the great man. I never had that privilege but did go to hear him speak twice at a packed Winchester Guildhall (which is a lovely building incidentally). He held the audience enthralled and there was a lot of laughter, which I’m sure won’t come as a surprise. I did know about the web servers and thought it was a fabulous idea to remember Terry that way.
Perhaps you can say who your favourite character was and why. Maybe favourite book too. If there is enough response, it would be nice to compile a top ten for this site. Will keep this open for the next few weeks or so.
Congratulations to Allison and Richard! Just to let you know that Discworld Monthly Issue 214 March 2015 has included this post in this month’s issue.