Terry Pratchett is by no means an ordinary author. Known by his Australian hat and wry writing style, his particular method is unlike any other, perhaps even deserving its own genre. Regardless, the sheer volume of influential literature he produced has cemented his reputation as one of the greatest authors of our time. Pratchett was born on April 28, 1948 in Buckinghamshire, England. He was the only child of his parents, David and Eileen Pratchett. In his youth, Pratchett showed more interest in astronomy than writing, but was not good enough at mathematics to pursue it as a career. However, he did very well in all his other subjects, achieving five O-levels. He then began A-level courses in the subjects of art, history and English. Pratchett's first work, a short story called The Hades Business, was published when he was only fifteen. He then chose a career in journalism and left school at seventeen to work for a small newspaper, the Bucks Free Press, where he wrote short articles for children. From these stories was born the first novel he published, The Carpet People, printed in 1971. It received good reviews, but went largely unnoticed. In 1980, he became press secretary for the Central Electricity Generating Board, which at the time included three nuclear power plants. Of his experiences there, Pratchett once said: "[I would write] a book about my experiences, if I thought anyone would believe it." » Two years later, in 1983, Pratchett published the first of his now famous Discworld saga, The Color of Magic. Over the next five years, until 1990, Pratchett would publish fifteen books, including nine more installations in the Discworld canon. At that time he published more than forty novels, and the middle of an article entitled Shaking Hands with Death, but due to the rapid intensification of his illness he could only give the introduction, as he had difficulty reading what he had written. However, thanks to various treatments, the progression of the disease has slowed significantly. He now writes by dictation or by voice recognition software. Pratchett was knighted by the Queen of England in 2009, for "services to literature", as he alone sold 55 million copies of his Discworld series. Pratchett is a contemporary George Orwell, using the pen to point out the things he believes to be wrong with the world, but in a way that makes the reader wonder how he could have seen things differently. His endearing wit is as important to embrace as the deep philosophical truths he manages to bring to the surface of each novel. Pratchett is truly "not just for an era, but for all times ».”