{"id":84,"date":"2022-11-14T15:48:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T04:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oddfeather.co\/?p=84"},"modified":"2024-04-14T15:52:24","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T04:52:24","slug":"book-review-terry-pratchett-a-life-with-footnotes-by-rob-wilkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oddfeather.co\/index.php\/2022\/11\/14\/book-review-terry-pratchett-a-life-with-footnotes-by-rob-wilkins\/","title":{"rendered":"Book review: Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes by Rob Wilkins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rob Wilkins\u2019 Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes<\/em> is an entertaining and in-depth biography of the late, great author<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes<\/em> is the long awaited biography of the heralded fantasy author Terry Pratchett, written by his PA and close friend of several decades, Rob Wilkins. It is a captivating and in-depth account of Pratchett\u2019s early life, family, (often reluctant) schooling, career before books, career during books, and many achievements over a lifetime of writing, imagining, and contributing an entire body of work to modern literature. Notable entries in a long list of prolific achievements include: corresponding with JRR Tolkien as a teenager; selling the manuscript for the first Discworld novel (and the many thereafter); his collaboration with Neil Gaiman on Good Omens<\/em>; being knighted by the Queen and forging his own sword; and campaigning for the right to assisted dying in the UK in the last few years of his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilkins relays all these events with the same gravity, humour, and detail as he does the smaller, everyday moments of his time with Pratchett, such as their methods for going through the mountains of fan mail received every week \u2013 \u2018Don’t eat fan food\u2019 \u2013 and spending days in the old shepherd\u2019s hut that Terry had restored and put on his land, where they could work for hours undisturbed. As his personal assistant and close friend, Wilkins was present for every milestone and achievement in Pratchett\u2019s career from when he was hired in 1998 to the author\u2019s passing in 2015. In this book he has compiled a lifetime of memories and knowledge, and not just in his own words. Wilkins notes in the introduction that, when Terry was diagnosed with Posterior Cortical Atrophy (a rare form of Alzheimer\u2019s Disease), the author started making notes for what would eventually be his autobiography. Wilkins includes many of these notes, using them as framing and flavour for the events and anecdotes that he shares. This use of first-hand source material is very effective in relaying Pratchett\u2019s own take on many aspects of his life and career and, with Wilkins\u2019 additions and occasional fact-checking, it makes for a highly readable and enjoyable biography. As Wilkins puts it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“It goes without saying that those words were an invaluable source for the chapters ahead… For a person who was bracingly committed to honesty and openness in his everyday dealings, Terry was also a great believer in not letting the truth stand in the way of a good story, and especially a good funny<\/em> story\u2026 [However], this approach to anecdotes presents something of a challenge to the biographer\u2026 Suffice it to say that in any contentious areas in the pages that follow, I have done my best to uphold the establishable truth, while trying not to crush the indisputable entertainment value of a well-polished fact.\u201d<\/p>\nPages 13-14<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, this book is a very thorough account of Terry Pratchett’s life, works, and personality, from someone who knew him very well and for many years. Fans of his work, and fans of literary giants across the board, will enjoy not only Wilkins\u2019 thoroughness in relaying things like bestseller milestones and early influences, but also his inclusion of the silly, funny, relatable titbits that make up a whole life\u2026 and which often includes a very well-polished fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This review was first published on AU Review<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rob Wilkins\u2019 Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes is an entertaining and in-depth biography of the late, great author Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[117,116,58,115,114],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","tag-au-review","tag-biography","tag-non-fiction","tag-rob-wilkins","tag-terry-pratchett","latest_post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oddfeather.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oddfeather.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oddfeather.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oddfeather.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oddfeather.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/oddfeather.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92,"href":"https:\/\/oddfeather.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions\/92"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oddfeather.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oddfeather.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oddfeather.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oddfeather.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}