Lessons from Pratchett
- Emma Henderson
- Mar 14, 2015
- 2 min read
About thirteen years ago, when I was only fourteen, I arrived late to a book signing for the release of 'The Fifth Elephant' in Winchester so missed Terry's speech. I queued for about two or three hours and there were two long queues flanking both sides of the Guildhall; I was only about half way down one side. In front of me in the queue were two older, gothy teens, behind were some amicable Nanny Oggs. The range of his devoted fans struck me then.
He signed three books for me. I had thought myself cheeky brining Small Gods and Mort in addition to the new release but I saw him diligently sign a whole bag full for one woman - I could only assume it was either her whole collection or she'd brought friends' copies along too. He held a bag of frozen peas to his wrist but was jolly and polite to everyone as he potato stamped away the Lancre crest onto the title page.
What Pratchett taught me:
The joy of a footnote.
That characters on the edge of good and evil are the most interesting (like Vimes and Weatherwax).
That a Godless universe is not an immoral one.
Comedy can be serious.
Stories for children can be serious.
That if you dig the best holes they just give you a bigger shovel.
My top 10 favorite works by Pratchett:
Nation
The Witches books eg. Carpe Jugulum
The Vimes books eg. Men at Arms and Feet of Clay
The Death and Susan books eg. Reaper Man and Thief of Time
Small Gods
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
The Tiffany Aching books (The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith and I shall Wear Midnight)
Bromeliad (the Truckers, Diggers, Wings trilogy)
The Johnny Maxwell Books (Only you Can Save Mankind, Johnny and the Dead and Johnny and the Bomb)
Strata
Dark Side of the Sun
The Carpet People.
and then the top 3 co-written books:
All four Science of Discworld books
Good Omens
The Long Earth
Okay, I can't do a top ten (even when I cheat and put whole collections together) - but then Pratchett taught us that rules are really more like guidelines and that if 'you break rules, break 'em good and hard'.
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