Marc Burrows - The Magic of Terry Pratchett

The Magic of Terry Pratchett

For Sir Terry, whose name will always be spoken

Marc Burrows

First published in Great Britain in 2020 by

White Owl

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Marc Burrows 2020

ISBN 978 1 52676 550 5

eISBN 978 1 52676 551 2

mobi ISBN 978 1 52676 552 9

The right of Marc Burrows to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Padstow, Cornwall.

Pen & Sword Books Limited incorporates the imprints of Atlas, Archaeology, Aviation, Discovery, Family History, Fiction, History, Maritime, Military, Military Classics, Politics, Select, Transport, True Crime, Air World, Frontline Publishing, Leo Cooper, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing, The Praetorian Press, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe Transport, Wharncliffe True Crime and White Owl.

For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact

PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED

47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England

E-mail: enquiries@pen-and-sword.co.uk

Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

Or

PEN AND SWORD BOOKS

1950 Lawrence Rd, Havertown, PA 19083, USA

E-mail: Uspen-and-sword@casematepublishers.com

Website: www.penandswordbooks.com

T his book is the result of a year of hard work, but without the support, generosity and good faith of a handful of people, it could never have been completed.

First of all, Id like to thank Terrys longstanding agent and first publisher, Colin Smythe. Though we never sat down for a formal interview, he has been patient and helpful in answering my queries, and his excellent website, colinsmythe.co.uk , is very much the key to the map of Terrys life. I couldnt have found my way through the forests and mountains of the Discworld without it. Id also like to thank the staff of the Senate House Library, where much of Colins archive of material is now housed, especially Maria Castrillo and her team, who were never anything but helpful.

This book would be nowhere near as interesting without the input of those that knew or worked with Terry over the years and helped me to see the man behind the hat. Huge thanks to David Langford, Roger Peyton, Rob Hansen, Charles Platt, Christopher Priest, Robert Rankin, Nigel Planer, Ed James, Julius Welby, Ivan Sparrow, Janice Raycroft (and by extension, Helen Clarke), Martin Wainwright, Gerald Walker, Tony Bush, Barbara Steinberg, the estate of Josh Kirby and the marvellous Jo Fletcher, all of whom added a pinch (or in the case of some, a handful or even a bucketload) of much-needed spice to the gumbo.

Thanks to Jason Rincewind Anthony-Rowlands and, especially, Rachel Anthony-Rowlands of the insanely comprehensive DiscworldMonthly.co.uk , who have been absolutely invaluable in this endeavour. Im forever grateful for their assistance and will be standing them several drinks at DWCon.

Id also like to acknowledge Neil Gaiman, Rhianna Pratchett, Rob Wilkins, Stephen Briggs, Paul Kidby, Bernard and Isobel Pearson and, especially, the Estate of Sir Terry Pratchett for their parts in this story.

This book could never have happened without the enthusiasm and patience of my editor (and headhunter), Kate Bohdanowicz, who had to put up with far too many nervous and impatient emails. She also deserves a bottle of something nice for letting me keep more of the jokes than I expected, especially the one about sub-editors. Thanks to everyone at Pen and Sword, especially Lori, Aileen, Jonathan, Laura and Alice.

Id like to thank Amanda Angus for her eagle-eyed proofing and well-timed suggestions, which have been more helpful than shell ever know. Has it been so long? Id also like to thank Andrew, Andy and Jez for the much needed distractions.

I couldnt have done this without the everlasting patience and support of my darling wife, Nicoletta, who believes in me when I lose faith in myself. LAWD, she has had to put up with a lot during the writing of this book. And thanks to Princess for curling up in my lap whenever I needed it.

And finally without my mum and dad handing a nerdy 11 year old The Colour of Magic and Guards! Guards! back in 1992, I would never have started on this journey. So for that and a million, billion other things, I will be saying thank you forever.

If you enjoyed this book, you can thank those people. If you didnt, you can blame me.

Marc Burrows,

December 2019, London

I ts hard to sum up Terry Pratchett properly. On the surface theres a temptation to think of him as a little bit like Santa Claus. White beard, distinctive hat, delivered goodies (at least) once a year, usually towards the end. But he was more complicated than that saint, and far superior to his own equivalent, the Hogfather, however much one likes sausages. Pratchett knew that the good werent always rewarded and the bad did not always get coal in their stockings. He knew that virtue often had to be its own reward because no-one else would thank you much for it. He knew that people are not essentially bad or good but essentially people, and that to impute too much else to their actions leads to madness. He taught me all of us more than Father Christmas ever did. But thats because he cannot be reduced to a cheery portrait.

Like most bookworms of my generation, I dont remember the first time I saw a Terry Pratchett book. They were always just there, around, bright colours and sinuously intricate Josh Kirby shapes calling to me even as the dense, picture-free insides suggested they were for older readers. I finally picked up Mort in my local library and fell instantly in love with the tone and the language and the entire damn Discworld. Over the next few years I devoured all the Pratchett I could get my hands on and then started over again (something I still do whenever I need a lift). When I decided, age 17, to sit the entrance exam for Oxford University, I noticed that there was always a question on the English paper along the lines of, Make a case for the inclusion of any writer not covered in this paper. Aha! Here was a chance to read Discworld books all day and call it study instead of prepping yet another Shakespeare essay. Ill never know if that paper helped or hindered my chances of getting in, but I like to think it was the former (I did get the offer). After all, by then respectable journalists were comparing Pratchett to Charles Dickens (faint praise as far as my teenage self was concerned) so I figured I could make my case.

I never wrote Pratchett a fan letter, caught between a desire not to waste his time and a sense of doubt that I had anything worth saying beyond OMG why are you so great? Will you be my friend? Arguably I still do not have much beyond that to say, despite having followed his footsteps into journalism and writing. But when Marc Burrows asked me to introduce this deeply researched and lovingly crafted book, I saw a chance to make up for my failure, because Marcs whole book is a tribute. This considers how a guy called Terry Pratchett became the Sir Terry Pratchett, how he honed his writing abilities from his earliest days until he could casually knock off several gloriously comic, beautifully nuanced stories each year. It paints a detailed, rounded picture of a man who was not a jolly elf , as Neil Gaiman puts it, but also not the old curmudgeon that Pratchett sometimes liked to pretend. The life that Marc recounts, in its ordinariness and its extraordinariness, is inspiring.