50 Fun Facts About Terry Pratchett

How many Discworld novels did Terry Pratchett publish between 1983 and 2015?

The last, The Shepherd's Crown, came out five months after his death.

Which novel was Pratchett's first, published in 1971?

He substantially rewrote it for a 1992 re-release; the original carried his own illustrations.

How many copies were in the first British printing of The Colour of Magic?

Pratchett described the book as doing for fantasy what Blazing Saddles did for Westerns.

Which novel was the final Discworld book, published five months after Pratchett died?

It closed the Tiffany Aching sequence in August 2015.

In which Buckinghamshire town was Pratchett born in 1948?

He credited his education to the town's public library rather than to school.

In his Who's Who entry, Pratchett credited his education to what?

He called himself a 'non-descript' student and was bullied at primary school for speech impediments.

What did the young Pratchett want to be before he found he lacked the maths?

He later built an observatory in his back garden and appeared on The Sky at Night.

At what age did Pratchett's story "The Hades Business" appear in his school magazine?

It was published commercially two years later, when he was 15.

Under what name did Pratchett write children's stories for the Bucks Free Press?

The first ran on 8 October 1965; he admitted he struggled with door-step interviews.

In which year were Pratchett's "Patrick Kearns" newspaper stories finally traced to him?

Kearns was his mother's maiden name; the stories were collected as A Stroke of the Pen.

In 1979 Pratchett became press officer for a region containing three what?

He joked about his 'impeccable timing', so soon after Three Mile Island.

Pratchett quit his day job in 1987 after finishing which Discworld novel?

It was the fourth Discworld book; from then on he aimed at 1,000 words a day.

Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of which decade?

The Times rated him the top-selling and highest-earning UK author in 1996.

Pratchett won the 2001 Carnegie Medal for which book?

It was the first Discworld book marketed for children.

Pratchett was knighted for services to literature in which year?

He had been made an OBE in 1998 and said he was 'mightily chuffed'.

After his knighthood, what did Pratchett make from iron he dug up near his home?

He believed a knight should have one; it was forged in 2010.

In December 2007 Pratchett announced he had been diagnosed with what?

He called it an 'embuggerance' and asked people to 'keep things cheerful'.

What word did Pratchett use for his diagnosis in a radio interview?

He said he would only accept help from 'very high-end experts in brain chemistry'.

How much did Pratchett donate to the Alzheimer's Research Trust in March 2008?

He was shocked that Alzheimer's research received just 3% of cancer-research funding.

Who read the main text of Pratchett's 2010 Dimbleby Lecture, Shaking Hands With Death?

Pratchett introduced it himself but his condition made reading difficult.

Pratchett died on 12 March 2015 at what age?

His humanist funeral was held in Salisbury later that month.

What prefix began the tribute HTTP header "GNU Terry Pratchett" added to websites?

It references Going Postal, where the clacks semaphore repeats a dead son's name forever.

What did Pratchett ask to be done to anything he was working on when he died?

Rob Wilkins carried it out in 2017 at the Great Dorset Steam Fair.

Where was Pratchett's hard drive crushed in 2017?

Wilkins said Pratchett left 'an awful lot' of unfinished writing, including ten known titles.

Which of Pratchett's novels ranked highest, at number 65, in the BBC's 2003 Big Read?

Only he and Charles Dickens had five books in the Top 100.

Pratchett's Discworld rests on four elephants standing on what?

A fossil sea-turtle, Psephophorus terrypratchetti, was named for him in 1995.

What is the name of the huge turtle that swims through space carrying the Disc?

The nation of Krull tried to launch a capsule over the Disc's edge to learn its sex.

Fans petitioned to name element 117 after which Discworld colour?

The proposed symbol was Oc, pronounced 'ook'; the element became tennessine.

How is the character Death's dialogue set in Pratchett's books?

It carries no quotation marks; characters say his voice reaches their minds without a sound.

What is the name of Death's pale horse in the Discworld novels?

Death appears in every novel except The Wee Free Men and Snuff.

Cohen the Barbarian parodies Conan and which historical conqueror?

He is also called Ghengiz Cohen; Leonard of Quirm is his Leonardo da Vinci.

Which Discworld character is a wizard turned into an orangutan who refuses to change back?

Pratchett was a trustee of the Orangutan Foundation and filmed in Borneo in 1995.

Twoflower, the tourist Rincewind guides in The Colour of Magic, works as what?

He sells the Broken Drum's landlord fire insurance, with predictable results for Ankh-Morpork.

What is the Luggage in the Discworld novels?

It belongs to Twoflower and follows Rincewind off the edge of the Disc.

Which Discworld novel introduced Sam Vimes as captain of the three-man Night Watch?

His fellow officers were Sergeant Fred Colon and Corporal Nobby Nobbs.

Granny Weatherwax comes from which small mountain country?

Her closest friend Nanny Ogg is known for the notorious 'Hedgehog Song'.

Who are the Nac Mac Feegle who guard Tiffany Aching?

They are also called the Wee Free Men, the title of Tiffany's first book in 2003.

Who played Rincewind in Sky One's 2008 film of The Colour of Magic?

Sean Astin was Twoflower and Christopher Lee took over as Death from the late Ian Richardson.

Which Monty Python member voiced Rincewind in the 1996 game Discworld II?

The game's US title was Mortality Bites; it had Rincewind investigating Death's disappearance.

In Good Omens, the Antichrist grows up unnoticed in which village?

The 2019 series filmed it at Hambleden in Buckinghamshire.

How did Pratchett and Gaiman swap drafts of Good Omens in 1988?

Gaiman recalled they were 'pretty darn floppy'; the plot was worked out in long daily phone calls.

Which part of Good Omens did Pratchett say was 'completely and utterly' his?

Gaiman, he said, 'proudly claims responsibility for the maggots'.

Agnes Nutter and Anathema Device take their surnames from victims of which witch trials?

Gaiman confirmed the homage to Alice Nutter and Elizabeth Device in a 2016 tweet.

Pratchett co-wrote the five-book Long Earth series with which science fiction author?

The first volume, The Long Earth, appeared in June 2012; he had earlier brainstormed Rainbow Mars with Niven.

Pratchett's coat-of-arms motto "Noli Timere Messorem" nods to which band's song?

It corrects Mort's dog-Latin 'Non Temetis Messor', a riff on '(Don't Fear) The Reaper'.

Which video game did Pratchett name as his favourite?

He wrote dialogue for a mod that added a Nord companion named Vilja.

Pratchett said he avoided chapters because life, movies and which author did not use them?

He made exceptions for Going Postal, Making Money and his books for younger readers.

In a 1995 interview, Pratchett worried about online misinformation to which tech figure?

Gates disagreed; the interview resurfaced in 2019 and was read as prescient of fake news.

What did Pratchett grow in his greenhouse, calling it 'not as interesting as people think'?

By Carpe Jugulum the dust-jacket note said they had taken over and he avoided going in.

Who wrote Pratchett's official biography, A Life with Footnotes, in 2022?

Burrows' unofficial The Magic of Terry Pratchett had won a Locus Award the year before.