the] use of first-hand source material is very effective in relaying Pratchett's own take on many aspects of his life and career and, with Wilkins' additions and occasional fact-checking, it makes for a highly readable and enjoyable biography. An insightful and moving biography detailing the extraordinary life of award-winning and bestselling author Terry Pratchett, written by Rob Wilkins, his friend, former assistant, and now head of the author's literary estate.

Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes by Rob Wilkins

These were the years when Terry’s career caught fire and properly blazed and when all the crucial numbers began to escalate vertiginously. The world he created was brilliantly absurd – elephants all the way down – and strangely convincing. A Life with Footnotes shines with the familiarity of deep friendship and obvious respect and affection—Terry and Rob were so close for so many years that they even shared a Twitter account, and Rob was in the unique position to be there for the writing of many books, the embuggerance of Terry’s Alzheimer’s, and the bitter, bitter end. one of my favourite parts of the first half of the book is how carefully wilkins recounts seemingly unimportant details - a tyranical boss at a local paper, an obsession with maintaining greenhouses, a phase of being weirdly into CB radio, teenage purchases of barely fuctional mopeds.

This Forbidden Planet special edition hardcover comes with orange sprayed edges, and is signed by author Rob Wilkins. Yet Terry was doing exactly the opposite, reacting to the news of his imminent demise with bravery, with unsparing thought, with a determination to confront his condition head on in public, with a bold mission to force the topic of assisted dying into the national conversation, and most of all (being Terry) with work – three television documentaries and seven more bestsellers. It’s all illuminating, and I appreciated that Rob didn’t try to sugarcoat or hide Terry’s more disagreeable personality traits, such as his irascibility and ingratitude, but there were also many sweet, and even more funny passages.

Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes - Penguin Books Australia Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes - Penguin Books Australia

a whole life, with all its connections and echoes, is not gone just because the person who had lived it isn't here anymore. I have been a Pratchett fan since pretty much the beginning and my loyalty and love to Sir PTerry is one of the constants of my life.Most of all, though, it was as lovely as it was sometimes surprising to take such an intimate look at Sir Terry and his loved ones, how they experienced certain milestones and forged a good life together. No one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away – until the clock he wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested.