Discworld Author Sir Terry Pratchett Has Died At 66

Fantasy writer Terry Pratchett, best known for his work on Discworld and Good Omens, passed away after suffering from Alzheimer’s for eight years.

Beloved fantasy and comedy writer Sir Terry Pratchett has died at the age of 66, following an eight-year struggle with Alzheimer’s. Pratchett was widely acclaimed for his work on over 70 books, including the popular Discworld series and the novel Good Omens he co-authored with Neil Gaiman. The author passed away at home with his family.

“In over 70 books, Terry enriched the planet like few before him,” Transworld Publishers’ Larry Finlay said. “As all who read him know, Discworld was his vehicle to satirize this world: He did so brilliantly, with great skill, enormous humor and constant invention.”

In recent years, Pratchett was also a strong supporter of Alzheimer’s and dementia research, due in large part to his own 2007 Alzheimer’s diagnosis. “Terry faced his Alzheimer’s disease (an ’embuggerance’, as he called it) publicly and bravely,” Finlay continued. “Over the last few years, it was his writing that sustained him. His legacy will endure for decades to come.”

In a roundabout way Pratchett wasn’t a stranger to Death, who appeared as a character in most of his books. In Discworld, Death was a seven-foot tall skeleton with a pale horse and friendly fascination for humanity, tasked with guiding souls into the next world. That explains why, if you go to Terry Pratchett and Rob Wilkin’s shared Twitter account, Terry’s meeting with Death is represented as a story.

“AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER,” one post reads in Death’s typical all-caps style. Another continues the tale with “Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.” The exchange is also posted on the account of his daughter, Rhianna Pratchett.

Farewell, Sir Terry. You will be deeply missed.

Source: BBC