Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes

LoveReading Says

Just perfect. Just how I imagined it would be. Just how I needed it to be. Who better to write Terry Pratchett’s biography than Rob Wilkins, head of the Pratchett literary estate, Terry’s former assistant, and his friend. I laughed and I cried (properly cried), emotions spilled out of me, exactly as they did when I read Terry Pratchett’s novels, I felt warm and enveloped in the magic of his words. Terry Pratchett’s books have been a part of my life since I was teen, and continue to be. I essentially grew up on the Discworld and I view his writing as being hugely influential as I was negotiating the stepping stones towards adulthood. His capacity for humour, rage, and inclusivity while writing the most fantastical of books, that actually held a mirror very closely to the face of humanity, means for me he is a writing hero. The first page of the introduction caused my eyes to leak, and as Rob briefly introduces his own entrance into the world of Terry Pratchett, a picture begins to form. Rob uses Terry’s memories as well as his own, and those closest to Terry. He tells it in a way that feels real, alive, vividly vibrant, and we grow with Terry from childhood. Rob of course includes plenty of footnotes, they pepper the pages, in fact it’s noteworthy when one isn’t lying in wait. When you reach the end of 2007 when a rare form of Alzheimer’s disease makes itself officially known as an ‘Embuggerance’, you know you are hurtling towards the end. The last chapter arrived, pages of tears followed, and yet and yet, there is joy too. And hope, of course, there is always hope. Sitting as a LoveReading Star Book, I can recommend this to anyone who loves fiction, anyone who couldn’t be without words,  Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes is a stonkingly good read and will join my bookshelves as one to treasure.

Liz Robinson

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