terry pratchett

There are many great and amazing writers who I would possibly prostrate myself at the feet of in awe if I were ever to meet them. People who had the power to change my life or make me a better person purely from the words they scribbled down. No writer has ever constantly astounded me as Terry Pratchett though. He has done for about three-quarters of my life, ever since I read Small Gods in school. Stuck in small classrooms with Born Again Christian teachers, it was an incredibly powerful book for me.

If you call yourself a writer or even a reader and haven’t yet immersed yourself in the cannon of the Discworld, I really think you are missing out on a trove of absolute literary treasures.

Any fellow Kevins on a Terry Pratchett Facebook page will be familiar with the grief alleviating GNUs, and it was Pratchett who wrote; ‘A man’s not dead while his name is still spoken.’ I love that line. A handful of simple words to hint an understanding of immortality. In Brethren, when you come across people speaking names of their loved and lost to keep them alive in a way, this comes from the mind of the great man himself. Mind how you go over the Black Sands, STP.

Maybe one day I’ll be able to read The Shepherd’s Crown.