The tweets read, “At last, Sir Terry, we must walk together. Pratchett’s death was announced on his Twitter account in a series of three Tweets, written in the voice of ‘Death’, a character in Pratchett’s books. Terry Pratchett was born 28 April 1948 in Buckinghamshire, England. The Alzheimer’s meant the final books by Pratchett were produced with the help of his long-time assistant and friend Rob Wilkins, and speech recognition software – Pratchett dictated his stories. He also donated a million dollars to Alzheimer’s research, and was an advocate for law reform on assisted dying. Pratchett’s lecture, Shaking Hands with Death, was about living well, and dying with dignity. Pratchett spoke out about his experience with Alzheimer’s including when he delivered the BBC Richard Dimbleby Lecture in 2010. In 2007 Pratchett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Pratchett married Lyn Purves in 1968, together they had a daughter, Rhianna. The Independent, writing at the time of the book’s release, said, “it’s difficult to see The Shepherd’s Crown as anything other than Sir Terry’s farewell letter to his legion of fans - though of course, this being a Pratchett, it’s pretty fine novel in its own right”. The final Discworld book, The Shepherd’s Crown, was published in 2015, the year of Pratchett’s death. In the decades to follow, Pratchett wrote dozens more books in the Discworld series. The next book in the Discworld series was The Light Fantastic and it was followed by Equal Rites, which was also serialised for radio, airing on the BBC’s Woman’s Hour. The first book in Pratchett’s popular Discworld series, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983. Pratchett’s books have sold tens of millions of books, in thirty seven languages worldwide. Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) was a beloved English author of more than fifty books, including the Discworld series.

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