A couple of weeks ago, I had a cup of tea with Terry Pratchett at Beaconsfield Library.OK, I'll come clean... there was Terry and me - and about a hundred other people there, all eagerly gathered to see one of the greatest names in modern British fantasy. "I can tell by your shining faces that you're fans", he quipped as he arrived on stage. For many of us there, Terry's link with Beaconsfield Library was familiar: he grew up in the area, and spent many happy hours as a child in the library. As a teenager, asked if he could work a few hours there every week in return for borrowing some extra, adult books (which normally wasn't allowed at the time). There was a very real sense that this was a homecoming for Terry, and he seemed quite moved to return to the library where he spent so much of his childhood. I actually wondered at one point if he was going to shed a tear.
He was accompanied onstage by his personal assistant Rob Wilkins, who gave Terry a hand every now and then, and provided several Terry-related anecdotes that they shared. It was fun seeing him wince every now and then when Terry said something gleefully un-PC, such as the time he charged at a bully at school and smashed his face in, or how the Luggage (one of Pratchett's barmiest creations - a travel chest on legs) was perhaps inspired by experimentation with marijuana! Well... who didn't suspect?
For a while now, Discworld has been an increasingly modern fantasy land. It's seen telegraphs, stamps and bank notes. The wizards at the Unseen University have built themselves a computer; albeit one made out of an ant colony, a mouse and a ram's skull. And Pratchett's next book, Raising Steam, features the Disc's first steam engine. We were lucky enough to hear a reading of part of it, much to the excitement of one eight year old train lover in particular!
Terry took questions from the audience, and I felt a rush of adrenaline as he answered mine. I asked him about his recent collaborations with sci-fi heavyweight Stephen Baxter in their Long Earth series. Inspired by Pratchett's short story The High Meggas written thirty years ago (and recently published in A Blink of the Screen), it explores the discovery of millions of parallel Earths, and mankind's attempts to travel them. I asked him what drew him back to the story after all that time, and why he worked with Baxter. He replied that he always thought the story had legs, but didn't feel he had the sci-fi chops to handle it. Fortunately, Baxter liked the story, and was happy to work with Pratchett. They must have enjoyed it - a second has just been released, with two more to follow. He then elaborated on his most famous working collaboration: working with Neil Gaiman on Good Omens. Apparently Gaiman was reading through a draft of the novel, and laughed out loud at a passage, which he complemented Pratchett on. "But I didn't write that!" Terry said. "I thought you did."
We learnt who Pratchett's favourite Discworld character is: Tiffany Aching, the star of the relatively recent mini-series, featuring a young trainee witch, and her adopted protectors the Nac Mac Feegle (they're small, blue, violent and (seemingly) Scottish - like Smurfs crossed with Trainspotting). Tiffany's clever, brave, and carries the powerful pragmatism shared by Pratchett's other great characters, Granny Weatherwax and Sam Vimes. [Actually, my favourite Discworld line is hers. It's from Wintersmith, after her mentor has died: "Tiffany sat on a stump and cried a bit, because it needed to be done. Then she went and milked the goats, because someone had to do that too."]
Terry told us about the books that shaped him as a boy at the library. The Wind in the Willows and The Moomins were particular favourites, as well as the 19th and early 20th Century back catalogue of Punch magazine, which he says taught him everything he needed to know about being funny. He was dismayed to learn that the library no longer stocked Punch, but that wrong was righted when a lady from the audience returned to the library afterwards to donate her late husband's collection! What a lovely lady. Another very kind donation came from Terry himself. When asked which charity he wanted the proceeds from the ticket sales to go to, he replied that it was all to go back to Beaconsfield Library - all £600 odd of it!
Speaking to Rob afterwards, I asked about the mooted Ankh Morpork City Watch TV series, based on mini-series featuring the wonderful Sam Vimes. He confirmed that it is going ahead, and that it fills the crime-of-the-week format, rather than being a straight adaptation of one of the stories. There's a lot that's uncertain at the moment: they were on their way afterwards to London for a meeting with the TV studio about it. He couldn't tell me who they were, but said they'd announce it in October. It'll presumably be a year's wait at least before we can see it, but it'll be worth the wait, I've no doubt of that!
Of course, Terry Pratchett isn't just known for his writing anymore, sadly. He's the Famous Author With Alzheimer's, and an outspoken advocate of the right to die. I saw him speak eight years or so ago, a good couple of years before he was diagnosed, and it was truly sad to see the ways he's deteriorated in that time. He needed helping getting on the stage, and frequently took a little while to gather his thoughts before answering. But one thing was certainly clear: his mind is still sharp and gleaming as a knife, and as funny as a... really good joke. Pratchett's still writing one or two books every year, and by jingo, he's still got it. He hopes to return to Beaconsfield one day, and I hope he does too! In the meantime, I'll keep reading everything I can of his.
I'm a librarian because I'm passionate about books, particularly fiction, and particularly fantasy and children's fiction. That probably doesn't surprise you, seeing that I write this here blog. But Terry's... special. I'm not yet thirty, but he's been a part of my life for over twenty years! (Yes, longer than my wife has!) So what I'm trying to say is, Terry... thanks for the stories.
His newest book, The Long War, co-written with Stephen Baxter is out now, and his next Discworld book, Raising Steam is out on 7th November.
