It is important to have genres, to define what we as consumers want for our entertainment, and let us hope that the high street wakes up to the importance and popularity of the fantasy genre and gives it the respect it so richly deserves. Yes, people do have their own interpretation of what fantasy is, and that may muddy the waters somewhat, but if great works of fantasy are to be showcased, then there must be an area of the bookstore that is forever fantastic and that includes not just the latest sword-and sorcery-titles but many of the books I list in the Further Reading section at the back of this book. There is more to the fantasy genre than meets the eye. Women didn’t always wear tight black leather and ringlets; certainly not Alice in her wonderland, not Hermione Granger, and certainly not the women and children in Hamelin town by famous Hanover city!
‘He started and rubbed his eyes. He had been so absorbed in the latter-day substitute for a novel, that he awoke to the little green and white room with more than a touch of the surprise of his first awakening.’
HG Wells (When the Sleeper Wakes)
‘… it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for a succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.’
JRR Tolkien (‘The Return of the King’, The Lord of the Rings)
Terry David John Pratchett was born on 28 April 1948 in the town of Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. He was the only child of David and Eileen Pratchett of Hay-on-Wye. Terry’s father was an engineer and his mother was a secretary. In 1957 the family moved to Bridgwater, Somerset, for a short period, before Pratchett passed his 11-plus exams in 1959 and went to Wycombe Technical High School, Easton Street, High Wycombe.* He could have gone on to grammar school but had no desire to follow the purely academic lifestyle.
The school moved to Marlowe Hill in 1966, shortly after Pratchett left it, and is known today as the John Hampden Grammar School.
In Who’s Who Pratchett says he was educated in the Beaconsfield Public Library. This slightly flippant remark has an element of truth in it, as it was there he found his passion for books by reading fantastical stories. ‘I became a reader at the age of ten and have never stopped,’ he said. ‘Like many authors, I read all sorts of books all the time…’ What books? Pratchett cites Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows as a major influence on his writing style, and one that has endured over the years. But once he got the reading bug, his appetite became voracious. He states that he had read all the James Bond books available to him by the age of 12, which was most of the original Ian Fleming titles at that time.
When he was old enough, Pratchett took a Saturday job in the local library. He wasn’t paid for it, but, as he now jokes, they turned a blind eye to him having about ‘256 library tickets’ – Pratchett left with two carrier bags of books twice a week. So the library really did become an important part of his education, as he recalls: ‘One day the librarian handed me three books tied together with string, saying: “I think these will be completely up your street.” It was The Lord of the Rings, which I read in one 24-hour sitting.’
The influence of The Lord of the Rings on Pratchett was immense. He describes his feelings of reading the book by discussing the prejudice in it. ‘I remember always feeling sorry for the orcs… the elves always seemed to be up to something and the humans always seemed to fall from grace, but the orcs were the lowest of the low and beyond redemption.’
Pratchett has always had an enquiring mind. The way he questions the different species in The Lord of the Rings is in character with the way he distinguishes different cultures sympathetically in the Discworld series today.
‘Rincewind had always liked boredom, treasuring it if only because of its rarity and value… The only time he could look back on with a certain amount of fondness was his brief spell as assistant Librarian at Unseen University, when there wasn’t much to do except read books…’
(Eric)
When one hears Pratchett recall his bookish youth, one begins to appreciate the grip books had on him and the process that led to authorship. ‘It cannot be stressed often enough that before you can become a writer, you have to be a reader, and a reader of everything at that,’ he states, and there is a lot of truth in that.
Although Pratchett read as much as he could in many different genres, it was two specific genres that left a lasting impression on him, as he recalls: ‘It was science fiction and fantasy that got me reading and science fiction writers in particular have pack rat minds.’
‘Rocket ships did not conquer space; they merely challenged it. A rocket leaving Earth at seven miles per second is terribly slow for the vast reaches beyond. Only the Moon is reasonably near – four days, more or less. Mars is thirty-seven weeks away, Saturn a dreary six years, Pluto an impossible half century, by the elliptical orbits possible to rockets.’
Robert A Heinlein (Tunnel in the Sky)
The exploration of space, as written by the great science fiction writers, combined with an early love of astronomy to set Pratchett’s young mind ablaze. It is interesting to note that after his first novel (The Carpet People), his next two (The Dark Side of the Sun and Strata) are considered to be more science fiction than fantasy.
‘There was no sound now in the observatory, and the lantern waned steadily. Outside there was the occasional cry of some animal in alarm or pain, or calling to its mate, and the intermittent sounds of the Malay and the Dyak servants. Presently one of the men began a queer chanting song, in which the others joined at intervals.’
HG Wells (In the Avu Observatory)
Science fiction writers opened Pratchett’s eyes to other possibilities later on, as he explains: ‘They introduced all sorts of interesting themes and ideas into their books, and so for me it was a short leap from fantasy and science fiction genres to folklore, mythology, ancient history and philosophy.’
If Pratchett’s spare time was spent in the local library or secondhand bookshop (another favourite haunt of the youngster), what was he like at school? Children who read are normally the quiet, often bullied, members of the class, but Pratchett won most of his peers over by being the joker. He used his imagination to make up stories that made the other children laugh, which is often noted as being a quirk of a future writer. Pratchett recalls that he used to doodle and draw characters in his notebooks at school and sometimes he would also write quirky bits of text, some recalled years later as vignettes in his novels. However, one piece he wrote (which he can’t now find) was a blend of JRR Tolkien and Jane Austen. He recalls a particularly good bit where the orcs take over the local rectory. So here we have an example of how developed Pratchett’s quirky style was in his youth: we have his love of fantasy books, his love of writing, his keen sense of humour, but also, and most importantly, his desire to parody, mixing the greatest book of the 20th century, The Lord of the Rings, with a tried-and-tested literary classic.
‘It was like being in a Jane Austen novel, but one with far less clothing.’
(Nation)
Did Pratchett do all this again with his first Discworld novel? No, he didn’t. By that time he had moved