Terry Pratchett

Terence David John Pratchett OBE (known to some fans as Pterry, following the convention he used in his book Pyramids where characters were given names such as Ptraci and Pteppic) is an English fantasy author (born April 28, 1948, in Beaconsfield, Bucks), best known for his Discworld series. As of March 2005 he has sold approximately 40 million books worldwide.

Adaptations

• Comic books
• The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Mort and Guards! Guards! have all been adapted as graphic novels.
• Theatre
• Several of Pratchett's novels have been adapted as plays by Stephen Briggs and many of the scripts have been published in book form. These include:
• Wyrd Sisters: The Play (1996)
• Mort: The Play (1996)
• Johnny and the Dead (1996) (non-Discworld)
• Guards! Guards!: The Play (1997)
• Men at Arms: The Play (1997)
• Maskerade (1998)
• Interesting Times (2002)
• The Truth (2002)
• Television
• Johnny and the Dead was made into a TV serial for Children's ITV on ITV1 in 1995. It starred Andrew Falvery as Johnny, and featured Brian Blessed as William Stickers and George Baker as Alderman Bowler.
• Animation
• Truckers was adapted as a stop-animation series for Thames Television by Cosgrove Hall
• Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music have also been adapted as animated series by Cosgrove Hall Films for Channel 4.
• Radio
• Guards! Guards!, Wyrd Sisters and Mort have been dramatised as serials and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents has been heard as a 90-minute play, all for BBC Radio 4.
• Role-playing games
• GURPS Discworld (Steve Jackson Games, 1998) and GURPS Discworld Also (Steve Jackson Games, 2001) were written by Terry Pratchett and Phil Masters and are not only wonderful role-playing source books, but also offer numerous insights into the workings of the Discworld and the power of narrative. The first of these two books has recently been re-released under the name of The Discworld Roleplaying Game with art by Paul Kidby. There is also the Discworld MUD.

The Discworld universe has also been used as a basis for a number of Discworld video games on a range of formats, such as the Sega Saturn, the Sony Playstation, the Philips CD-i, and the 3DO Console as well as Windows PCs. Most notable are the adventures Discworld (Psygnosis Ltd., 1995), Discworld II (Psygnosis Ltd., 1996; sub-titled Mortality Bytes in the US and Missing, Presumed...!? in Europe) and Discworld Noir (GT Interactive Software France, 1999).

Related Topics:
Sega Saturn - Sony Playstation - Philips CD-i - 3DO Console

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

First editions of the early Discworld books in good condition are very valuable - the British first hardcover edition of The Colour of Magic is now worth over £2000 (4,500 copies were printed by St Martin's Press in the USA, of which 506 were sold in Britain under the Colin Smythe imprint, hence the scarcity!), while The Light Fantastic is worth £1000-1500.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It is even possible to get a character in one of the future Discworld books named after yourself. Usually people appear in the books by bidding for the privilege in charity auctions.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The cover art of all of the Discworld novels sold in the United Kingdom until 2001 were created by Josh Kirby.

Related Topics:
United Kingdom - 2001 - Josh Kirby

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

See also: Discworld, Discworld characters

Related Topics:
Discworld - Discworld characters

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~