Terry Pratchett: December 2007 Archives

One of my favorite authors, one whose books I have unfortunately yet to review here, has announced that he has been diagnosed with a form of early onset Alzheimer’s. His Discworld novels are some of my absolute favorites and you really owe it to yourself to try a few of them if you haven’t already. I’m roughly only a third of the way through the series myself and each book I have read has been a real treat and often had me laughing out loud.

From the announcement, An Embuggerance:

I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news. I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer’s, which lay behind this year’s phantom “stroke”.

We are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism. For now work is continuing on the completion of Nation and the basic notes are already being laid down for Unseen Academicals. All other things being equal, I expect to meet most current and, as far as possible, future commitments but will discuss things with the various organisers. Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there’s time for at least a few more books yet :o)

PS I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as ‘I am not dead’. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think - it’s too soon to tell. I know it’s a very human thing to say “Is there anything I can do”, but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry.