Terry Pratchett
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50 free Terry Pratchett trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Terry Pratchett wrote 41 Discworld novels, sold more than 100 million books in 43 languages and was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s, all while insisting that chapters were an unnecessary stopping point. He started as a trainee journalist on the Bucks Free Press at 17, wrote children's stories there as Uncle Jim, and published The Colour of Magic in 1983 in a first printing of just 506 copies. These 50 questions cover the whole career: the Beaconsfield library he credited with his education, the nuclear press-officer job he took right after Three Mile Island, the 'Patrick Kearns' stories nobody traced to him until 2023, the Carnegie Medal for The Amazing Maurice, the knighthood and the sword he forged himself, and the steamroller that crushed his hard drive. Discworld and Good Omens get their share too: Great A'Tuin, octarine, Death's small caps, the Luggage, Agnes Nutter and the Sky One films. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and each explanation adds one more detail. Play it solo, or print it for a book-club night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Discworld novel borrows its plot from Shakespeare's Macbeth?
Wyrd Sisters
Wyrd Sisters has its witches decide they can't wait 15 years for the rightful heir to grow up, so they move the whole kingdom 15 years into the future.
Q 02Which novel was Pratchett's first, published in 1971?
The Carpet People
The Carpet People was rewritten so heavily for its 1992 edition that Pratchett said the book had two authors, and they were both the same person.
Q 03Which Discworld con man is saved from the gallows and made to run Ankh-Morpork's Post Office?
Moist von Lipwig
Moist von Lipwig survives because Lord Vetinari secretly had his hanging faked, so the con man could be put to work reviving the city's post.
Q 04Which novel was the final Discworld book, published five months after Pratchett died?
The Shepherd's Crown
The Shepherd's Crown sees Granny Weatherwax die and leave everything to her young successor, Tiffany Aching.
Q 05In which Buckinghamshire town was Pratchett born in 1948?
Beaconsfield
He credited his education to the town's public library rather than to school.
Q 06Which Somerset town twinned itself with Pratchett's fictional city of Ankh-Morpork?
Wincanton
Wincanton agreed the twinning in 2002, and in 2009 Pratchett unveiled roads on a new estate named after the city's streets, such as Treacle Mine Road.
Q 07What did the young Pratchett want to be before he found he lacked the maths?
An astronomer
An astronomer was his boyhood ambition, and he later had an observatory built in his back garden and appeared on BBC's The Sky at Night.
Q 08Which Discworld novel sends the assassin Mr Teatime on a job paid for by the Auditors?
Hogfather
Hogfather has Death dress up as the missing Hogfather and deliver the presents himself, to keep children believing in him.
Q 09What is the name of Nanny Ogg's scarred, one-eyed tomcat in the Discworld novels?
Greebo
Greebo was once magically turned into a human, emerging as a swashbuckling, scarred rogue who still behaved like a cat.
Q 10Which 2023 book gathered Pratchett stories first printed under the name Patrick Kearns?
A Stroke of the Pen
A Stroke of the Pen exists because fans spotted Kearns stories set in Blackbury, a town Pratchett often used, and Kearns was his mother's maiden name.
Q 11As an electricity board press officer, Pratchett covered a region containing several what?
Nuclear power stations
Nuclear power stations were his beat, and he later said he could write a book about the job if he thought anyone would believe it.
Q 12Which six-foot-six Ankh-Morpork Watchman was adopted and raised by dwarfs?
Captain Carrot
Captain Carrot's dwarf name, Kzad-bhat, means Head Banger, because he grew up in mines built for dwarfs.
Q 13Which Pratchett novel's sewer-scavenging hero rescues a young woman who leaps from a carriage?
Dodger
Dodger's hero accidentally stops the murderous barber Sweeney Todd while simply trying to smarten himself up with a haircut.
Q 21Pratchett's 2011 BBC film Choosing to Die followed a man to an assisted-dying clinic in which country?
Switzerland
Switzerland's Dignitas is where Peter Smedley invited Pratchett to be with him as he died, and the film showed his death.
Q 22Which HTTP header name carries the website tribute 'GNU Terry Pratchett'?
X-Clacks-Overhead
X-Clacks-Overhead comes from Going Postal, where the clacks keep sending a dead son's name, because no one is forgotten while their name is still spoken.
Q 23What did Pratchett ask to be done to anything he was working on when he died?
Crushed by a steamroller
Q 14Pratchett won the 2001 Carnegie Medal for which book?
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents twists the Pied Piper: a talking cat and educated rats fake infestations so a boy can pipe them away for cash.
Q 15Which scruffy Discworld street dog gained the power of speech in Moving Pictures?
Gaspode
Gaspode is named after a famously loyal dog who stayed by his master's grave, possibly only because the gravestone was on his tail.
Q 16After his knighthood, what did Pratchett make from iron he dug up near his home?
A sword
A sword, he believed, was something every knight should have, so after his 2009 knighthood he smelted his own from ore he dug up.
Q 17In December 2007 Pratchett announced he had been diagnosed with what?
Early-onset Alzheimer's
Early-onset Alzheimer's, in a rare form called posterior cortical atrophy, was the real illness behind symptoms first misdiagnosed as a stroke.
Q 18What word did Pratchett use to describe his 2007 diagnosis?
Embuggerance
Embuggerance was his word for it, and he asked people to keep things cheerful, saying he was taking it fairly philosophically.
Q 19What is the name of Death's manservant in the Discworld novels?
Albert
Albert, once a noted wizard, lives with Death because he had only months to live when he arrived, and every trip back into the world uses them up.
Q 20Who read the main text of Pratchett's 2010 Dimbleby Lecture, Shaking Hands With Death?
Tony Robinson
Pratchett introduced it himself but his condition made reading difficult.
Crushed by a steamroller was his wish, and in August 2017 his hard drive was flattened, destroying his unfinished novels for good.
Q 24Which Discworld novel sends Rincewind to the distant Agatean Empire?
Interesting Times
Interesting Times sends him because the Empire demands a 'Great Wizzard', and his hat is the only one spelled that way.
Q 25Which Pratchett novel ranked highest of his books in the BBC's 2003 Big Read poll?
Mort
Mort follows Death's teenage apprentice, who spares a princess fated to die, so reality starts behaving as if she hadn't survived.
Q 26Pratchett's Discworld rests on four elephants standing on what?
A giant turtle
A giant turtle carries the Disc, and in The Colour of Magic scholars send a ship over the Disc's edge to try to discover the turtle's sex.
Q 27What is the name of the star-swimming creature that carries the Discworld's four elephants?
Great A'Tuin
Great A'Tuin's great secret surfaced at the end of The Light Fantastic, when eight eggs hatched into eight baby Discworlds.
Q 28Fans petitioned to name element 117 after which Discworld colour?
Octarine
Octarine, the Discworld's colour of magic, inspired a fan petition to name element 117, but IUPAC chose tennessine instead.
Q 29How is the character Death's dialogue set in Pratchett's books?
Small capitals
Small capitals set Death's speech apart because he has no vocal cords, so his words arrive in listeners' heads without passing through their ears.
Q 30What is the name of Death's pale horse in the Discworld novels?
Binky
Binky is a real flesh-and-blood horse because Death found a skeletal steed kept falling apart and a fiery one set its bedding alight.