Pratchett's early interests included astronomy. Pratchett described himself as a 'non-descript' student and, in his Who's Who entry, credited his education to the Beaconsfield Public Library. He passed his eleven plus exam in 1958, earning a place at High Wycombe Technical High School, where he was a key member of the debating society and wrote stories for the school magazine. Pratchett's family moved to Bridgwater, Somerset, briefly in 1957. He was bothered by the head teacher, who, he said, thought 'he could tell how successful you were going to be in later life by how well you could read or write at the age of six'. Pratchett attended Holtspur School, where he was bullied for his speech impediments. His maternal grandparents came from Ireland. Pratchett was born on 28 April 1948 in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, England, the only child of David (1921–2006), a mechanic, and Eileen Pratchett (1922–2010), a secretary, of Hay-on-Wye. Pratchett died on 12 March 2015, aged 66. He later made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust (now Alzheimer's Research UK, ARUK), filmed a television programme chronicling his experiences with the condition for the BBC, and became a patron for ARUK. In December 2007, Pratchett announced that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2010. In 2001, he won the annual Carnegie Medal for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, the first Discworld book marketed for children. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours. With more than 100 million books sold worldwide in 43 languages, Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s.

The final Discworld novel, The Shepherd's Crown, was published in August 2015, five months after his death.

The first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, after which Pratchett wrote an average of two books a year. Pratchett's first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971. He is best known for his Discworld series of 41 novels.

Sir Terence David John Pratchett OBE (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humorist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. Recorded May 2008 from the BBC Radio 4 programme Bookclub

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