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Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English author of fantasy novels, especially comical works.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Terry Pratchett Interview )〕 He is best known for his Discworld series of 41 novels. Pratchett's first novel, ''The Carpet People'', was published in 1971; after the first Discworld novel, ''The Colour of Magic'', was published in 1983, he wrote two books a year on average. His 2011 Discworld novel ''Snuff'' was at the time of its release the third-fastest-selling hardback adult-readership novel since records began in the UK, selling 55,000 copies in the first three days.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Pratchett's Snuff snaffles top spot with ease )〕 His final Discworld novel, ''The Shepherd's Crown'', was published in August 2015, five months after his death. Pratchett, with more than 85 million books sold worldwide in 37 languages,〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Sir Terry Pratchett )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.colinsmythe.co.uk/terrypages/tpindex.htm )〕 was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours.〔 〕 In 2001 he won the annual Carnegie Medal for ''The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents'', the first ''Discworld'' book marketed for children.〔〔 He received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2010. In December 2007, Pratchett announced that he was suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He later made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust (now Alzheimer's Research UK), filmed a television programme chronicling his experiences with the disease for the BBC, and also became a patron for Alzheimer's Research UK. Pratchett died on 12 March 2015, aged 66. ==Early life== Pratchett was born on 28 April 1948〔 〕 in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, England, the only child of David and Eileen Pratchett, of Hay-on-Wye〔 and he attended Holtspur School.〔Bucks Free Press, p. 121 Sir Terry Pratchett Tribute. 20 March 2015.〕 His family moved to Bridgwater, Somerset, briefly in 1957, following which he passed his eleven plus exam in 1959, earning a place in High Wycombe Technical High School〔 (now John Hampden Grammar School) where he was a key member of the debating society and wrote stories for the school magazine.〔 Pratchett described himself as a "non-descript student" and, in his ''Who's Who'' entry,〔 credits his education to the Beaconsfield Public Library.〔 〕 His early interests included astronomy. He collected Brooke Bond tea cards about space, owned a telescope and wanted to be an astronomer but lacked the necessary mathematical skills.〔 He developed an interest in reading science fiction〔 and began attending science fiction conventions from about 1963–1964, but stopped when he got his first job a few years later.〔 His early reading included the works of H. G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, and "every book you really ought to read", which he later regarded as "getting an education". Pratchett published his first short story entitled "Business Rivals" in the High Wycombe Technical School magazine in 1962. It is the tale of a man named Crucible who finds the Devil in his flat in a cloud of sulphurous smoke.〔 "The Hades Business" which was published in the school magazine when he was 13 was published commercially when he was 15. Pratchett earned five O-levels and started A-level courses in Art, English and History. His initial career choice was journalism and he left school at 17 in 1965 to start working for the ''Bucks Free Press'', where he wrote, amongst other things, several stories for the ''Children's Circle'' section under the name Uncle Jim. One of these episodic stories contains named characters from ''The Carpet People'' (1971). The stories are currently part of a project by the ''Bucks Free Press'' to make them available online.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.terrypratchett.weebly.com )〕 While on day release he finished his A-Level in English and took a proficiency course for journalists. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Terry Pratchett」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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