'PEOPLE THINK THAT STORIES ARE SHAPED BY PEOPLE. IN FACT, IT'S THE OTHER WAY AROUND.'
At the time of his death in 2015, award-winning and bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett was working on his finest story yet - his own.
At six years old, Terry was told by his headteacher that he would never amount to anything.
He spent the rest of his life proving that teacher wrong. At sixty-six, Terry had lived a life full of achievements: becoming one of the UK's bestselling writers, winning the Carnegie Medal and being awarded a knighthood for services to literature.
Following his untimely death from Alzheimer's disease, the mantle of completing Terry's memoir was passed to Rob Wilkins, his former assistant, friend and now head of the author's literary estate.
Drawing on his own extensive memories, along with those of Terry's family, friends, fans and colleagues, Rob recounts Terry's extraordinary story - from his early childhood to the literary phenomenon that his Discworld series became; and how he met and coped with the challenges that 'The Embuggerance' of Alzheimer's brought with it.
'Of all the dead authors in the world, Terry Pratchett is the most alive.' - John Lloyd
I don't often read non-fiction - I had enough of that during my school/university days - preferring instead a 'good story'.
I was also going to say that I don't often read biographies.
Except that, truth be told, this is actually the first one that I've ever read (despite attempting, in the past, to start some and then getting bored senseless within about the first 10 pages or so ...)
And also, truth be told, it wasn't one that I was really going out of my way to look forward, except that the late, great Terry Pratchett is/was one of my favourites and that I saw this on sale for something like 99p.
Written by long-term assistant Rob Wilkins, this has been compiled - I think that's the right word - from 'official' notes/memories as provided by Pratchett himself (before his untimely death, in 2015, to a rare form of Alzheimer's) and from personal recollections of Rob himself, covering Pratchett's entire life story from his childhood) where he was told by his headmaster he would never amount to anything and hated reading), right on through to his diagnosis and eventual (unassisted) death.
The last part, in particular, is particularly moving.