Terry Pratchett’s Alzheimer’s Speech in Full
“Soon after I told the world (about his Alzheimer’s diagnosis) my website fell over and my PA had to spend the evening negotiating more bandwidth.
I had more than 60,000 messages within the first few hours.
Most of them were readers and well-wishers.
Some of them wanted to sell me snake oil and I’m not necessarily going to dismiss all of these, as I have never found a rusty snake.”
Terry Pratchett is one of the most talented writers of our time. A satirist known for his Discworld series and for GOOD OMENS, co-written with Neil Gaiman, the creations he crafts are extremely entertaining and humorous. Personally, I just discovered his work not long ago. I don’t know what rock I have been living under, but I am glad I’ve finally seen the light.
Neil Gaiman may have given Mr. Pratchett the ultimate writer compliment in his comments on working with Terry Prachett on GOOD OMENS.
“Terry is that rarity, the kind of author who likes Writing, not Having Written, or Being a Writer, but the actual sitting there and making things up in front of a screen. At the time we met, he was still working as a press officer for the South Western Electricity board. He wrote four hundred words a night, every night: it was the only way for him to keep a real job and still write books. One night, a year later, he finished a novel, with a hundred words still to go, so he put a piece of paper into his typewriter, and wrote a hundred words of the next novel.”
It is a cruel fate with his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. No matter how prolific Mr. Pratchett can be, there will still be a wonderful tale trapped in his brain without synaptic release for all of us to enjoy.
Thank you, Sir Terry Pratchett, for all you have done and all you will do. Keep pushing forward.
Humor in the face of tragic news. Hope over despair. Courage over fear. And (which would make Hemingway proud), grace under pressure. Class.
THE COACH HAYS 