Terence David John Pratchett OBE (born 28 April 1948) is an English fantasy and science fiction author, best known for his Discworld series. Other works include the Johnny Maxwell Trilogy and the Bromeliad Trilogy. He also closely collaborates on adaptations of his books, such as computer games and plays.
Pratchett started to write by the age of 13 and his first work was published commercially at the age of 15.

Biography
About 1968,

Career
Pratchett was the British Book Awards Fantasy and Science Fiction Author of the Year for 1994.

Awards
Terry Pratchett married his wife Lyn in 1968

Personal life
Pratchett has written both fantasy and sci-fi literature but focuses almost entirely on fantasy because, according to his own words, "it is easier to bend the universe around the story" in fantasy.

Writing
Terry Pratchett makes no secret of outside influences on his work; they are a major source of humour. He imports numerous characters from popular culture and ancient history

Influences
Aside from his distinctive writing style, Pratchett is known for the use of footnotes in his books. Some characters are parody of well known real or fictional characters. For example, the Pratchett's character Cohen the Barbarian is a parody of Conan the Barbarian and Leonard of Quirm is a parody of Leonardo da Vinci.
The use of capitalized dialogue (without speech marks) to indicate one of the series' most permanent characters, Death, communicating directly to an individual's mind without speech, is also a trademark of his writing.

Trademarks
Pratchett started to use computers for writing as soon as they became available. His first computer was the Sinclair ZX81, but the first computer he used for writing was the Amstrad 464, later replaced by the PC. His experiments with computer upgrades reflected on Hex, the only fictional computer in the Discworld series.

Technology

Discworld
Together with Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, Pratchett wrote The Science of Discworld (1999), The Science of Discworld II: The Globe (2002) and The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch (2005). All of these have chapters that alternate between fiction and non-fiction, with the fictional chapters being set within the universe of the Discworld, as its characters observe and experiment on a universe not unlike ours. In 1999 Terry Pratchett made both Cohen and Stewart "Honorary Wizards of the Unseen University" at the same ceremony at which the University of Warwick gave Terry Pratchett an honorary degree.

Related works

1988 Truckers
1990 Diggers
1990 Wings The Bromeliad Trilogy

1992 Only You Can Save Mankind
1993 Johnny and the Dead
1996 Johnny and the Bomb The Johnny Maxwell Trilogy

1971 The Carpet People
1976 The Dark Side of the Sun
1981 Strata
1989 The Unadulterated Cat (with Gray Jolliffe)
1990 Good Omens (with Neil Gaiman)
2008 Nation Other works

After the King edited by Martin H. Greenberg (1992) contains "Troll Bridge", a story featuring Cohen the Barbarian (also published in Knights of Madness and The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy, see below).
The Wizards of Odd edited by Peter Haining (1996) includes a Discworld short story called "Theatre of Cruelty"
The Flying Sorcerers edited by Peter Haining (1997) is the "sequel" to The Wizards of Odd and starts off with a Pratchett story called "Turntables of the Night", featuring Death.
Knights of Madness, again edited by Peter Haining (1998) is the "sequel" to The Flying Sorcerers and contains the Discworld short story "Troll Bridge" (also published in The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy, see below).
Legends, edited by Robert Silverberg contains a Discworld short story called "The Sea and Little Fishes".
Meditations on Middle-Earth (2002)
The Leaky Establishment written by David Langford and recently re-issued for which Pratchett provided a foreword
The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy edited by Mike Ashley (2001) contains "Troll Bridge", a story featuring Cohen the Barbarian.
Once More* *With Footnotes edited by Priscilla Olson and Sheila M. Perry (2004) is "an assortment of short stories, articles, introductions, and ephemera" by Pratchett which "have appeared in books, magazines, newspapers, anthologies, and program books, many of which are now hard to find."
Now We Are Sick written by Neil Gaiman and Stephen Jones includes the poem called "The Secret Book of the Dead".
The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2007 includes an article by Pratchett about the process of writing fantasy. Books containing contributions from Pratchett

Adaptations
Johnny and the Dead and 14 Discworld novels have been adapted as plays by Stephen Briggs and published in book form.

Theatre
Johnny and the Dead was made into a TV serial for Children's ITV on ITV in 1995. In January 2006 BBC aired a three-part adaptation of Johnny and the Bomb.
A two part feature length version of Hogfather starring David Jason and the voice of Ian Richardson was first aired before Christmas on 17 and 18 December 2006 on Sky One and, in high-definition, on Sky One HD. Pratchett was opposed to live action films about Discworld before because of his negative experience with Hollywood film makers.
Truckers was adapted as a stop-animation series for Thames Television by Cosgrove Hall Films. Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music were adapted as animated series by Cosgrove Hall Films for Channel 4 in 1996. An illustrated screenplay for Wyrd Sisters was published in 1998 and for Soul Music in 1997.

Television
Terry Pratchett's novel The Wee Free Men is set to be turned into a film by Sam Raimi; currently the film is expected to be released in 2008.

Films
The Colour of Magic, Guards! Guards!, Wyrd Sisters, Mort and Small Gods have been dramatised as serials, and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents has been heard as a 90-minute play, all for BBC Radio 4.

Radio
The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Mort, and Guards! Guards! have been adapted into graphic novels.

Comic books
GURPS Discworld (Steve Jackson Games, 1998) and GURPS Discworld Also (Steve Jackson Games, 2001) are role-playing source books which were written by Terry Pratchett and Phil Masters, which also offer insights into the workings of the Discworld and the power of narrative. The first of these two books was re-released in September 2002 under the name of The Discworld Roleplaying Game with art by Paul Kidby.

PC and Console games
A collection of essays about his writings is compiled in the book Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature, edited by Andrew M. Butler, Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn, published by Science Fiction Foundation in 2000. A second expanded edition was published by Old Earth Books in 2004. Andrew M. Butler also wrote the Pocket Essentials Guide to Terry Pratchett published in 2001. Writers Uncovered: Terry Pratchett is a biography for young readers by Vic Parker published by Heinemann Library in 2006.