Biography

He attended so many book signings that fans used to joke that unsigned books were more valuable than signed ones.

He had to pay for the Alzheimer's drug Aricept because the NHS said he was too young to get it for free.

He donated £500,000 ($U1 million) to the research of Alzheimer's disease.

His earlier adult Discworld books do not often feature chapters, but those aimed at younger readers (the Tiffany Aching series, and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents) do. He has begun to use chapters in his adult novels (ex: The Truth, Going Postal); this was done to disprove a critic that complained that Pratchett seemed unable to write in chapter format. Pratchett went so far as to use lengthy and descriptive chapter headings in the Victorian style, seemingly to drive the point home.

In March 2008, he announced that he has Posterior Cortical Atrophy, a rare form of Alzheimer's disease.

[His response to a TIME magazine article crediting J.K. Rowling with reinventing the fantasy genre]: "Ever since "The Lord of the Rings" revitalized the genre, writers have played with it, reinvented it, subverted it and bent it to their times. It has also contained some of the very best, most accessible writing for children, by writers who seldom get the acknowledgment they deserve".

[His response to J.K. Rowling saying she wasn't aware that her "Harry Potter" books were fantasy until they were finished]: "I would have thought that the wizards, witches, trolls, unicorns, and hidden worlds would have given her a clue?"

In ancient times cats were worshiped as gods. They have not forgotten this.

The baby boomers are getting older and will stay older for longer. And they will run right into the dementia firing range. How will a society cope? Especially a society that can't so readily rely on those stable family relationships that traditionally provided one backbone of care?

In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.