The Everything Behind the Brilliant Works of Sir Terry Pratchett "The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it," says one of literature's finest, Sir Terry Pratchett. This bit of comedic wisdom is impressively truthful for its silly style. Such style could only belong to Pratchett, who, considering his forty million sold books and position of knighthood, must have kept his mind open to all the right people. He has written over a broad spectrum of genres and age groups, but Pratchett rose to fame for his uniquely satirical Discworld series of forty science fiction-fantasy novels. Pratchett's novels take evident inspiration from all aspects of his life, and his comedic style is similarly influenced. While many of his characters and settings derived from his life experiences, most of his writing serves him as a mechanism through which he can indulge in any of his numerous interests. Pratchett will quickly announce that he writes for the sake of writing. The process of it, he says, is somewhat of a learning experience. Childhood events and hobbies play key roles in Pratchett's inspiration; in terms of his comedic style: this has grown as he has evolved and learned from himself throughout his writing years. To comprehend the scale of such comedic excellence, one must observe Pratchett from the very beginning: April 28th, 1948, in a small town in the English countryside. Terry Pratchett was born on April 28th, 1948, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire; here he would spend his youth and unknowingly acquire a decent chunk of his future writing material. An only child, young Terry grew up in a small house without running water (Young), and he credits his parents for raising him to value such a home (Penny). "We were the last pre-television generation," recalls Pratchett. "We probably never went more than half a mile or two-thirds of a mile from our home. But there were woods and fields, you know. It was magnificent" (Young). At an early age he took up, with the encouragement of his parents, the hobby of astronomy, but this became history when, at the surprisingly early age of thirteen, he published his first written work, a short story called The Hades Business. Writing was Pratchett's second big hobby, and he stuck with it. The Hades Business, originally published in his school's magazine, found commercial publication a mere two years later (Famous Authors). Pratchett found his first career as a journalist for Bucks Free Press, where he wrote under the pseudonym 'Uncle Jim' (Famous Authors). "Life just became very full," he remembers. "And they work you very hard and they pay you practically nothing, but you're the traditional apprentice, and you are actually learning a trade" (Young). His apprenticeship concluded around 1971 with his first published book, The Carpet People. Pratchett earned himself a sizable fan base with this and his next publications, which would come out in rapid succession for the next forty years. His Discworld series gained the most fame; a handful of his outstanding works from this series include The Colour of Magic, Mort, Hogfather, and Wintersmith. In 2008, his literary contributions earned him the position of Officer of the Order of the British Empire, and he became 'Sir' Terry Pratchett. Just a year before that, however, in August of 2007, Pratchett was diagnosed with posterior cortical atrophy, a rare form of Alzheimer's Disease (Akbar). Interestingly enough, Pratchett would use this plot twist to even further enrich his work. Numerous direct connections exist between Pratchett himself and his novels. Growing up in Buckinghamshire, young Terry Pratchett used to listen to his mother tell him stories on the way to school (Penny). His growing imagination motivated him to visit the village library, "The Little Bookshop," twice a week after school, where he became exposed to the world of science fiction and fantasy. Pratchett