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R.I.P. Sir Terry Pratchett, 1948-2015

Sir Terry Pratchett

It is our sad duty to inform you that beloved author and screenwriter Sir Terry Pratchett has died after a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. He was 66.

Sir Terry was known best the Discworld series, and wrote more than 70 books over his lengthy career. He also wrote screenplays for Doctor Who, and collaborated with Neil Gaimon on Good Omens, a fantasy novel that achieved cult status and has been recently produced as a radio drama for the BBC.

He was first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2007, but continued writing, completing his final book in the Discworld series last summer; The Shephard’s Crown, a Tiffany Aching book, is due out this year.

The author died at home, surrounded by his family.

AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.

— Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) March 12, 2015

Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.

— Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) March 12, 2015

The End.

— Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) March 12, 2015

“The world has lost one of its brightest, sharpest minds,” said Transworld Publishers’ Larry Finlay. “In over 70 books, Terry enriched the planet like few before him. As all who read him know, Discworld was his vehicle to satirize this world: He did so brilliantly, with great skill, enormous humour and constant invention. Terry faced his Alzheimer’s disease (an ’embuggerance’, as he called it) publicly and bravely. Over the last few years, it was his writing that sustained him. His legacy will endure for decades to come.

“My sympathies go out to Terry’s wife Lyn, their daughter Rhianna, to his close friend Rob Wilkins, and to all closest to him.”

Terry passed away in his home, with his cat sleeping on his bed surrounded by his family on 12th March 2015. Diagnosed with Posterior Cortical Atrophy in 2007, he battled the progressive disease with his trademark determination and creativity, and continued to write. He completed his last book, a new Discworld novel, in the summer of 2014, before succumbing to the final stages of the disease.

We ask that the family be left undisturbed at this distressing time.

A Just Giving page donating to the Research Institute to the Care of Older People (RICE) has been set up in his memory: https://www.justgiving.com/Terry-Pratchett

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