It had a very long pendulum,and the pendulum swung with a slow tick-tock that set his teeth on edge,because it was the kind of deliberate annoying ticking that wanted to make it abundantly clear that every tick and every tock was stripping another second off your life. It was the kind of sound that suggested very pointedly that in some hypothetical hourglass somewhere,another few grains of sand had dropped out form under you.

His family moved to Bridgwater Somerset briefly in 1957 following which he passed his eleven plus exam in 1959 earning him a place in John Hampden Grammar School. He was made an adjunct Professor in the School of English at Trinity College Dublin in 2010 with a role in postgraduate education in creative writing and popular literature. Pratchett's first novel The Carpet People was publiTerry Pratchettd in 1971 and since his first Discworld novel (The Colour of Magic) was publiTerry Pratchettd in 1983 he has written two books a year on average.

His latest Discworld book Snuff was at the time of its release the third-fastest-selling hardback adult-audience novel since records began in the United Kingdom selling 55000 copies in the first three days. Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett OBE (born 28 April 1948) is an English author of fantasy novels especially comical works. In December 2007 Pratchett announced that he was suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's disease.