Coordinates	°′″N°′″N
name	Stephen Baxter
birth date	November 13, 1957
birth place	Liverpool, England
occupation	Writer
nationality	British
genre	Hard SF
influences	H. G. WellsArthur C. Clarke
website	http://www.stephen-baxter.com }}

Stephen Baxter (born 13 November 1957) is a prolific British hard science fiction author. He has degrees in mathematics and engineering.

Writing style

Strongly influenced by SF pioneer H. G. Wells, Baxter has been a distinguished Vice-President of the international H. G. Wells Society since 2006.

His fiction falls into three main categories, each with a very different style and tone.

His Xeelee Sequence stories are set in the far future, where humans are rising to become the second most powerful race in the universe, next to the god-like Xeelee. Character development in these stories takes second place to the depiction of advanced theories and ideas, such as the true nature of the Great Attractor, naked singularities and the great battle between Baryonic and Dark matter lifeforms. Examples of novels written in this style: Ring, Timelike Infinity.

His present-day Earth stories are much more human, with characters portrayed with greater depth and care. They typically indulge in "if only" whimsy or outright alternate history, dreaming about what humanity could achieve in the exploration of space. NASA features prominently, and a great deal of research has obviously been done into its internal structuring and methods.

However, these novels have a much darker tone than any of his other stories and do not often portray much hope for humanity as a moral species. Examples of novels written in this style include his NASA Trilogy, including Voyage (winner of the Sidewise Award for Alternate History), Titan, and Moonseed; and his as-yet unnamed disaster series, including Flood and Ark.

Each novel of the Manifold trilogy is focused on a potential explanation of the Fermi paradox.

His "Evolution" stories are a later development and show an increasing interest in the evolution of humanity. These seem to have their origins in stories of his other writing styles, such as Mammoth and Manifold: Origin. The novel Evolution is an example of this style.

Baxter also covers numerous other styles: his Mammoth stories, ostensibly for children, are often of great delight to adults, while The Time Ships (an authorised sequel to The Time Machine) is generally taken to be one of his greatest novels. It won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, the BSFA Award, and was nominated for other major science fiction awards, including the Hugo Award.

In February 2007, Baxter was announced as the author of what was to be the 100th story for Big Finish Productions' Doctor Who audio series. Earthstorm was originally scheduled to be released in late September 2007, but has been delayed indefinitely, according to a May 2007 announcement on the company's website.

In 2009, Baxter became a judge for the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, the first former winner among the panel.

Baxter has also written non-fiction essays and columns for such publications as Critical Wave and the British SF Association's Matrix.

In 2010 it was announced that he would be working on a new series, "The Long Earth", with Terry Pratchett.

Literary awards

{|class="wikitable" |- !Award Name !Year !For book !Short stories printed in |- |BSFA Award SF Novel |1995 |The Time Ships |  |- |Sidewise Award for Best Short Form Alternate History |1995 |Brigantia's Angels |Traces |- |John W. Campbell Award |1996 |The Time Ships |  |- |Philip K. Dick Award |1996 |The Time Ships |  |- |Sidewise Award for Best Long Form Alternate History |1996 |Voyage |  |- |BSFA Award Short Fiction |1997 |War Birds |Phase Space |- |SF Chronicle Award Best Novelette |1998 |Moon Six |Traces |- |Analog Award Best Short Story |1998 |Moon-Calf |Phase Space |- |Philip K. Dick Award |1999 |Vacuum Diagrams |  |- |Analog Award Best Short Story |2000 |Sheena 5 |Phase Space |- |Locus Poll Award Best Novelette |2000 |Huddle |Phase Space |- |Asimov's Readers' Poll Novelette |2001 |On the Orion Line |Resplendent |- |BSFA Award Non-Fiction |2001 |Omegatropic |  |- |Analog Award Best Short Story |2002 |The Hunters of Pangaea |Evolution & The Hunters of Pangaea |- |BSFA Award Short Fiction |2004 |Mayflower II |Resplendent |}

Baxter's story Last Contact was nominated for the 2008 Hugo Award for best short story.

Bibliography

All ISBNs are for the first edition.

Xeelee Sequence

{|class='wikitable' width='100%' |- !width='25%'|Title !width='10%'|Year !width='20%'|ISBN !width='45%'|Notes |- |Raft |1991 |ISBN 0-246-13706-1 |Arthur C. Clarke Award nominee, 1992 |- |Timelike Infinity |1992 |ISBN 0-00-224016-5 |  |- |Flux |1993 |ISBN 0-00-224025-4 |  |- |Ring |1993 |ISBN 0-00-224026-2 |  |- |Vacuum Diagrams |1997 |ISBN 0-00-225425-5 |Philip K. Dick Award winner, 1999 Short story collection. |- |Reality Dust |2000 |ISBN 1-902880-10-2 ISBN 1-902880-11-0 |Novella (first published by PS Publishing as trade paperback and hardcover; both limited; later collected in Resplendent) |- |Riding the Rock |2002 |ISBN 1-902880-60-9 ISBN 1-902880-59-5 |Novella (first published by PS Publishing as trade paperback and hardcover; both limited; later collected in Resplendent) |- |Mayflower II |2004 |ISBN 1-904619-16-9 ISBN 1-904619-17-7 |Novella (first published by PS Publishing as trade paperback and hardcover; both limited; later collected in Resplendent) |- |Starfall |2009 |ISBN 978-1-906301-59-0 ISBN 978-1-906301-60-6 |Novella (published by PS Publishing as hardcover and jacketed hardcover; both limited) |- |}

NASA Trilogy

{|class='wikitable' width='100%' |- !width='25%'|Title !width='10%'|Year !width='20%'|ISBN !width='45%'|Notes |- |Voyage |1996 |ISBN 0-00-648037-3 |Arthur C. Clarke Award nominee, 1997 |- |Titan |1997 |ISBN 0-06-105713-4 |Arthur C. Clarke Award nominee, 1998 |- |Moonseed |1998 |ISBN 0-06-105903-X |  |- |}

The Web Series

See The Web (series)

Manifold Trilogy

{|class='wikitable' width='100%' |- !width='25%'|Title !width='10%'|Year !width='20%'|ISBN !width='45%'|Notes |- |Manifold: Time |1999 |ISBN 0-345-43076-X |Arthur C. Clarke Award nominee, 2000 |- |Manifold: Space |2000 |ISBN 0-345-43077-8 |  |- |Manifold: Origin |2001 |ISBN 0-345-43079-4 |  |- |Phase Space |2002 |ISBN 0-00-651185-6 |Short story collection. |- |}

The Mammoth Trilogy

{|class='wikitable' width='100%' |- !width='25%'|Title !width='10%'|Year !width='20%'|ISBN !width='45%'|Notes |- |Silverhair |1999 |ISBN 0-06-105132-2 |  |- |Longtusk |1999 |ISBN 0-380-81898-1 |  |- |Icebones |2001 |ISBN 0-380-81899-X |  |- |Behemoth |2004 |ISBN 0-575-07604-6 |Omnibus of the Mammoth trilogy |- |}

Destiny's Children

{|class='wikitable' width='100%' |- !width='25%'|Title !width='10%'|Year !width='20%'|ISBN !width='45%'|Notes |- |Coalescent |2003 |ISBN 0-345-45786-2 |Arthur C. Clarke Award nominee, 2004 |- |Exultant |2004 |ISBN 0-345-45788-9 |  |- |Transcendent |2005 |ISBN 0-345-45792-7 |John W. Campbell Memorial Award nominee, 2006 |- |Resplendent |2006 |ISBN 0-575-07896-0 |Short story collection. |- |}

A Time Odyssey (Co-authored with Arthur C. Clarke)

{|class='wikitable' width='100%' |- !width='25%'|Title !width='10%'|Year !width='20%'|ISBN !width='45%'|Notes |- |Time's Eye |2003 |ISBN 0-345-45248-8 |  |- |Sunstorm |2005 |ISBN 0-345-45250-X |  |- |Firstborn |2007 |ISBN 978-0-345-49157-2 |  |- |}

Time's Tapestry series

{|class='wikitable' width='100%' |- !width='25%'|Title !width='10%'|Year !width='20%'|ISBN !width='45%'|Notes |- |Emperor |2006 |ISBN 0-575-07432-9 |  |- |Conqueror |2007 |ISBN 0-575-07673-9 |  |- |Navigator | 2007 |ISBN 978-0-441-01559-7 |  |- |Weaver | 2008 |ISBN 978-0-575-08204-5 |  |- |}

Unnamed disaster series

{|class='wikitable' width='100%' |- !width='25%'|Title !width='10%'|Year !width='20%'|ISBN !width='45%'|Notes |- |Flood |2008 |ISBN 978-0575080584 |British Science Fiction Association Award nominee, 2008 |- |Ark |2009 |ISBN 978-0575080577 |  |- |}

Northland trilogy

{|class='wikitable' width='100%' |- !width='25%'|Title !width='10%'|Year !width='20%'|ISBN !width='45%'|Notes |- |Stone Spring |2010 |ISBN 978-0-575-08919-8 |- |Bronze Summer |2011 |ISBN 978-0-575-08923-5 |- |Iron Winter'' |2012 |ISBN 978-0-575-08928-0 |}

Unrelated novels

{|class='wikitable' width='100%' |- !width='25%'|Title !width='10%'|Year !width='20%'|ISBN !width='45%'|Notes |- |Anti-Ice |1993 |ISBN 0-06-105421-6 |Alternate History |- |The Time Ships |1995 |ISBN 0-06-105648-0 |BSFA Award winner, 1995; Campbell Award winner, 1996; Hugo, Locus, Clarke, British Fantasy, and Philip K. Dick Awards nominee, 1996 Alternate History. An authorised sequel to H. G. Wells's The Time Machine |- |The Light of Other Days |2000 |ISBN 0-312-87199-6 |Co-authored with Arthur C. Clarke. |- |Evolution |2003 |ISBN 0-345-45783-8 |  |- |The H-Bomb Girl |2007 |ISBN 0-571-23279-5 |Young adult |- |}

Unrelated collections

{|class='wikitable' width='100%' |- !width='25%'|Title !width='10%'|Year !width='20%'|ISBN !width='45%'|Notes |- |Traces |1998 |ISBN 0-00-649814-0 |Short story collection. |- |The Hunters of Pangaea |2004 |ISBN 1-886778-49-3 |18 stories and five essays on science and science fiction. |- |}

Short fiction

{|class='wikitable' width='100%' |- !width='25%'|Title !width='10%'|Year !width='25%'|First published in !width='40%'|Reprinted in |- |Formidable caress |2009 |Analog 129/12 (Dec 2009) |The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year : Volume Four, ed. Jonathan Strahan (Night Shade Books, 2010) |- |Return to Titan |2010 |Godlike Machines, Jonathan Strahan, ed. | |}

Non-fiction

{|class='wikitable' width='100%' |- !width='25%'|Title !width='10%'|Year !width='20%'|ISBN !width='45%'|Notes |- |Deep Future |2001 |ISBN 1-85798-844-2 |Mainly articles on science. |- |Omegatropic |2001 |ISBN 0-95407-881-0 |Mainly science fiction criticism. |- | Revolutions in the Earth Ages in Chaos | 2003 (UK) 2004 (United States) | ISBN 0-29782-975-0 ISBN 0-76531-238-7 | James Hutton and the True Age of the World James Hutton and the Discovery of Deep Time |- | The Science of Avatar | 2011 | ISBN 0297863436 | Examines the concepts used in the 2009 film Avatar. |}

References

External links

Stephen Baxter's official website

The Manifold (an unofficial but up-to-date fan site)

- The Manifold Message Boards (where fans of Mr. Baxter can interact and discuss his work)

The Baxterium (a semi-official Baxter site)

Stephen Baxter's online fiction at Free Speculative Fiction Online

Stephen Baxter Yahoo! Groups (fan discussion group)

Stephen Baxter Fantastic Fiction

Stephen Baxter Book Reviews on The SF Site

Interview with Steven Baxter on The SF Site

Steven Baxter Infinity Plus Profile

Category:English science fiction writers Category:Sidewise Award winning authors Category:Hugo Award winning authors Category:1957 births Category:Living people Category:Writers from Liverpool

bg:Стивън Бакстър cs:Stephen Baxter de:Stephen Baxter es:Stephen Baxter eo:Stephen Baxter fa:استفن بکستر fr:Stephen Baxter it:Stephen Baxter lv:Stīvens Beksters hu:Stephen Baxter nl:Stephen Baxter ja:スティーヴン・バクスター no:Stephen Baxter pl:Stephen Baxter pt:Stephen Baxter ru:Бакстер, Стивен sl:Stephen Baxter fi:Stephen Baxter sv:Stephen Baxter uk:Стівен Бекстер

Coordinates	°′″N°′″N
Name	Sir Terry Wogan
Birth date	August 03, 1938
Birth place	Limerick, Ireland
Show	Weekend Wogan
Station	BBC Radio 2
Timeslot	Sunday: 11:00 – 12:59
Country	United Kingdom
spouse(s)	Helen Wogan, Lady
Website	}}

Sir Michael Terence "Terry" Wogan KBE DL (born 3 August 1938) is a veteran Irish radio and television broadcaster who holds dual Irish and British citizenship. Wogan has worked for the BBC in the United Kingdom for most of his career. Before he retired from the weekday breakfast programme Wake Up to Wogan on BBC Radio 2 on 18 December 2009, Sir Terry had a regular 8 million listeners, making him the most listened-to radio broadcaster of any European nation. He began his career at Raidió Teilifís Éireann where he presented shows such as Jackpot in the 1960s.

Wogan has been a leading media personality in the UK since the late 1960s and is often referred to as a national treasure. He is perhaps best known in the United Kingdom for his BBC1 chat show Wogan, for his work presenting Children in Need, as the host of Wake Up to Wogan, the original host of the BBC game show Blankety Blank (before being replaced by Les Dawson), a presenter of Come Dancing in the 1970s, and as the BBC's commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest on radio and television from 1971 to 2008. Wogan started a primetime weekend show on Radio 2 from 14 February 2010.

Early life

Terry Wogan, the son of a grocery store manager in Limerick City, was educated at the Jesuit school of Crescent College from the age of eight. He experienced a strongly religious upbringing, later commenting that "There were hundreds of churches, all these missions breathing fire and brimstone, telling you how easy it was to sin, how you'd be in hell. We were brainwashed into believing." Despite this, he has often expressed his fondness for the city of his birth, commenting on one occasion that "Limerick never left me, whatever it is, my identity is Limerick."

At the age of 15, after his father was promoted to general manager, Wogan moved to Dublin with his family. While living in Dublin, he attended Crescent College's sister school, Belvedere College. He participated in amateur dramatics and discovered a love of rock music. After graduating from Belvedere in 1956, Wogan had a brief career in the banking profession, joining the Royal Bank of Ireland. He later joined the national broadcaster of Ireland, RTÉ (Raidió Teilifís Éireann) as a newsreader and announcer, after seeing an advert in a newspaper advertising announcer positions.

Personal life

On 25 April 1965, Wogan married Helen Joyce, with whom he has three children: Alan (born 1967); Mark (born 1970); and Katherine (born 1972), married to The Hon. Henry Cripps (the eldest son of Michael Cripps, 5th Baron Parmoor). Wogan and his wife Helen currently live in Taplow, south Buckinghamshire, near Maidenhead. The couple have a holiday home in Gascony, south-west France.

Radio work

Early career

Wogan conducted interviews and presented documentary features during his first two years at Raidió Teilifís Éireann, before moving to the light entertainment department as a disc jockey and host of TV quiz and variety shows such as Jackpot, a top rated quiz show on RTÉ in the 1960s. When the show was dropped by RTÉ TV in 1967, Wogan approached the BBC for extra work. He began working for BBC Radio, initially 'down the line' from London, first broadcasting on The Light Progamme on Tuesday 27 September 1966. On the inauguration of BBC Radio 1, he presented the Tuesday edition of Late Night Extra for two years, commuting weekly from Dublin to London. After covering Jimmy Young's mid-morning show throughout July 1969, he was offered a regular afternoon slot from 3 to 5 p.m. This was officially on BBC Radio 1, but lack of funding meant that it was also broadcast on BBC Radio 2.

In April 1972, he took over the breakfast show on BBC Radio 2, swapping places with John Dunn, who briefly hosted the afternoon show. By this time, Radio 1 and Radio 2 had diverged sufficiently to allow separate programming, and Wogan enjoyed unprecedented popularity, achieving audiences of up to 7.6 million. His seemingly ubiquitous presence across the media meant that he frequently became the butt of jokes by comedians of the time, among them The Goodies and The Barron Knights. Wogan was eminently capable of self-parody too, releasing a vocal version of the song "The Floral Dance" during this time, by popular request from listeners who enjoyed hearing him sing over the instrumental hit by the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band. His version reached number 21 in the UK Singles Chart. A follow-up single, entitled "Me and the Elephant", and an eponymous album were also released, but did not chart.

In December 1984, Wogan left his breakfast show to pursue a full-time career in television. He was replaced on radio by Ken Bruce, followed shortly afterwards by Derek Jameson and finally Brian Hayes.

Return to radio

In January 1993, he returned to BBC Radio 2 to present the breakfast show, then called Wake Up to Wogan. His tendency to go off on rambling, esoteric tangents, often including banter with his then producer, Paul Walters, seems to have become popular with both younger and older listeners. The show was highly interactive with much of the entertainment coming from letters and emails sent in by listeners (many of whom adopt punning pseudonyms, such as Edina Cloud, Lucy Lastic, Mick Sturbs or Hellen Bach, for the purpose) with an often surrealistic bent. One memorable occasion involved Wogan reading out an email from someone using the name "Tess Tickles", without realising what the name was referring to, prompting Paul Walters' standard reply in such situations – "I only print 'em!"

As his radio show was considered to attract older listeners, Wogan jokingly refers to his fans as "TOGs", standing for Terry's Old Geezers or Terry's Old Gals, whilst "TYGs" are Terry's Young Geezers/Gals who he jokes are forced to listen to him because of their parents' choice of radio station. Wogan is referred to as The Togmeister on his own programme by himself and members of his production team, and he refers to the podcast of his show as a 'togcast' in keeping with the acronyms described above.

There were also running jokes involving Wogan's newsreader colleagues Alan Dedicoat (nicknamed 'Deadly' after the spoonerism 'Deadly Alancoat'), Fran Godfrey and John Marsh (nicknamed 'Boggy'). Marsh once told Wogan on air that his wife was called Janet, and a series of "Janet and John" stories followed, read by Wogan during the breakfast show. These are a pastiche of children's learn-to-read stories but are littered with humorous sexual double-entendres which often led to Wogan and Marsh breaking into uncontrollable laughter. Five CDs, the first with fourteen stories, the second with sixteen, the third with eighteen (two never broadcast), the fourth with eighteen and the fifth with nineteen (one never broadcast), have been sold by listeners in aid of Children in Need, and have raised an enormous amount for the campaign (to date: over £3 million from all sales of related TOG/TYG products). A long-running campaign by Wogan criticising the British government for levying VAT on these CDs eventually led to a government rebate of £200,000.

Another feature of the programme was Wogan's exchanges with “the Totty from Splotty “ – Lynn Bowles, the Welsh traffic reporter from Splott, Cardiff – which often involved reading limericks from listeners cut short after 1 or 2 lines as risqué innuendo in the later lines was telegraphed.

Through his show Wogan is also widely credited with launching the career of singer Katie Melua after he repeatedly played her debut single, "The Closest Thing to Crazy", in late 2003. When she performed on Children in Need in 2005, Wogan jokingly said to Melua, "You owe it all to me, and maybe a little to your own talent". He has, however, made no secret that the credit for discovering her lies with his long time producer, Paul Walters.

In 2005, it was reported that his breakfast show Wake Up to Wogan attracted an audience of eight million. According to figures leaked to British newspapers in April 2006, Wogan was the highest paid BBC radio presenter at that time, with an £800,000 a year salary. In an interview with Britain's Hello magazine in its 30 May 2006 issue, Wogan confirmed this, saying, "The amount they said was true and I don't give a monkey's about people knowing it. Nor do I feel guilty. If you do the maths, factoring in my eight million listeners, I cost the BBC about 2p a fortnight. I think I'm cheap at the price".

On 23 May 2005, Wogan broke strike picket lines to present his show. The strike by BBC staff was a protest over announced job cuts. Reportedly, he gave them a smile and wished them all well. He explained on air that the reason for doing so was that he is contracted to host Wake up to Wogan and hence is not directly employed by the BBC, and so could not legally strike with their employees.

Wogan was forced off air on 16 February 2007 when steam from a nearby gym set off fire alarms. For 15 minutes an emergency tape played non stop music. On returning, Wogan read out several light hearted comments from listeners saying that they thought he had died with his sudden disappearance and the playing of such sentimental music.

On 7 September 2009, Wogan confirmed to his listeners that he would be leaving the breakfast show at the end of the year with Chris Evans taking over. The Times published an ode to Terry: "Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone. Terry Wogan is abandoning his microphone", and novelist Allison Pearson commented: "Heard the one about the Irishman who reminded the British of what they could be at their best? His name was Terry Wogan." Terry Wogan presented his final Radio 2 breakfast show on 18 December 2009.

It was announced that Wogan would return to Radio 2 from 14 February 2010 to host a live weekly two hour Sunday show on Radio 2, featuring live musical performance and guests, between 11.00 am and 1.00pm. The show, titled Weekend Wogan was hosted in front of a live audience in the Radio Theatre at BBC Broadcasting House until the 4th series where he returned to the studio. Some 30,000 people applied for 300 tickets to be in the audience. Wogan's first guests on his new show were the actor Sir Ian McKellen and jazz singers Norah Jones and Jamie Cullum. The programme did feature a house band (Elio Pace).

Television work

Children in Need

In 1980, the BBC's charity appeal for children was first broadcast as a telethon called Children In Need, with Wogan presenting alongside Sue Lawley and Esther Rantzen. Wogan has been the presenter of this annual event ever since.

He has campaigned extensively for the charity and often involves himself via auctions on his radio show, or more directly by taking part in well-publicised sponsored activities. The BBC Children In Need 2006 programme trailer featured Wogan in a wrestling ring, supported by various television personalities. His opponent (Ken Bruce) appeared confident in defeating him, until Terry removes his shirt to reveal the physique of a bodybuilder. He has since joked on his BBC Radio 2 programme that the media had got it wrong, and that his body was superimposed on somebody else's head.

He is reported to be the only celebrity paid for his participation in Children in Need, having received a fee every year since 1980 (£9,065 in 2005). Wogan, however, has stated that he would "quite happily do it for nothing" and that he "never asked for a fee". The BBC stated that the fee had "never been negotiated". Wogan's fee has been paid from BBC resources and not from the Children in Need charity fund. There is no record, however, of Wogan ever having repaid his fee from previous years.

His first and only appearance on the popular panel comedy show QI was in the 2008 episode for Children in Need, 'Families'.

Eurovision Song Contest

In 1971 and from 1974 until 1977, and again in 1979, Wogan provided the BBC's radio commentary for the Eurovision Song Contest. He became better known for his television commentary, which he handled first in 1973 and then again in 1978. From 1980 until 2008, he provided the BBC's television commentary every year and became famous for his sardonic and highly cynical comments. He also co-hosted the contest, in 1998 with Ulrika Jonsson, live from Birmingham. From 1977 until 1996 Wogan hosted the UK selection heat each year, returning to the job in 1998 and again from 2003 until 2008. In 1973, 1975 and every year from 1977 until 1984 and once more in 1994, Wogan also presented the UK Eurovision Song Contest Previews on BBC1. He remained until recently an advocate of the contest. He earned a reported £150,000 annually for his work with the contest. His commentating style, which often involved humour at the expense of others, has caused some minor controversy, for example when he referred to the hosts of the 2001 contest in Denmark, Søren Pilmark and Natasja Crone Back, as "Doctor Death and the Tooth Fairy". Although many British viewers find his comments amusing, they are far from being universally liked outside Britain. The Danes were less than appreciative and Wogan now jokes that he is banned from visiting Denmark.

During the presentation of the Dutch televote in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, Wogan called the Dutch televote presenter, Paul de Leeuw, an "eejit", as de Leeuw started to make ad lib comments, gave his mobile phone number and lengthened the Dutch results. Chris Tarrant later remarked that "Terry Wogan's commentary is why any sane person would choose to watch the Eurovision," referring to his now-infamous acerbity..

During the 2007 BBC show Making Your Mind Up, in which the British public voted to decide their Eurovision entry, Terry Wogan announced, wrongly, that the runner-up Cyndi was the winner. The actual winner was the group Scooch and, according to the BBC, Terry Wogan had been provided with the correct result during the live show. His response to this on his radio show was quite simple, "It's not like anybody died or anything." He also stated that if they'd gone with Cyndi, we'd not have come last.

The Contest in recent years, however, has become notorious for a perceived increase in political voting (an aspect noted for many years). In 2008 the UK's entry, Andy Abraham, came last, much to Wogan's disappointment. Wogan argued that Abraham "..gave, I think, the performance of his life with a song that certainly deserved far more points than it got when you look at the points that Spain got, that Bosnia-Herzegovina got – some really ridiculous songs."

Unknown to the majority of television viewers across Europe, however, Wogan is well-known to many veteran broadcasters across the continent, being seen as a Eurovision Song Contest institution. Indeed, at the 2008 contest he was acknowledged by both hosts, and welcomed personally by name to the show (alongside only two other individuals from the 43 participating broadcasting nations: France's Jean-Paul Gaultier and Finland's 2007 Contest host Jaana Pelkonen).

On 11 August 2008, Wogan said in an interview with national magazine RadioTimes that he was 'very doubtful' about presenting the Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom again, claiming it was "predictable" and "... no longer a music contest". On 5 December 2008 Wogan officially stepped down from the role after 35 years. Graham Norton succeeded Wogan as BBC commentator for the 2009 contest. Norton said during the opening comments "I know, I miss Terry too."

In 2008 Sir Terry and Aled Jones released a single "little drummer boy/peace on earth" which got to number three in the UK music charts. This single was part of an album called Bandaged which included songs by various artists and the money raised went to BBC Children in Need. In 2009 Sir Terry and Aled recorded a second Christmas single "Silver Bells" which was also part of the second Bandaged album in aid of BBC Children in Need and can still be found on www.charitygoods.com

Chat shows

Wogan's first foray into TV interviewing was with "What's On Wogan?", which ran for one series in 1980 on BBC1, primarily on early Saturday evenings. In 1981, he had a chance to host a one-off chat show, Saturday Live. Among his guests on this show were Larry Hagman, promoting his new film S.O.B., and Frank Hall, who was then the Irish film censor. During the course of the interview, Hall accused Wogan of selling out his Irish heritage and, responding to a question posed by Wogan about his suitability as a film censor, said there was more filth on British television than in film citing the BBC TV serial The Borgias as an example.

Wogan was given his own chat show, Wogan, which after a trial run on a midweek evening, was recommissioned for broadcast on Saturday nights from 1982 to 1984. Between 1985 and 1992, the show became thrice-weekly on early weekday evenings. Notable moments of the series included interviews with a drunk George Best, a silent Chevy Chase, a nervous Anne Bancroft who was so petrified she gave monosyllabic answers and counted to ten before descending the entrance steps to the studio, Ronnie Barker announcing his retirement on the show, and David Icke claiming to be the "Son of God", to whom Wogan famously stated "They're not laughing with you, they're laughing at you."

In 1992, a poll apparently revealed Wogan to be simultaneously the most and the least popular person in Britain , and he was subsequently released from his talk-show contract after pressure from the BBC. He claims that the BBC also wanted his scheduling slot for the ill-fated soap Eldorado. Wogan briefly hosted "Terry Wogan's Friday Night" in 1993, but this series was not recommissioned.

In 2006 Wogan presented Wogan Now and Then, a show where he interviewed guests from his old chat show as well as new guests, and for which he reportedly earnt £30,000 per episode. He claims that presenting the programme was a light relief after so many years on radio. Wogan also designed the set for his new show, allowing him to get a better feel for it. He even claims that the seat he used was designed to support the lower back since he suffers from back complaints.

Other TV work

Although best known for hosting the original Blankety Blank, in 2008, he hosted a gameshow entitled Wogan's Perfect Recall. The programme turned up in an episode of Being Human where Terry could talk to Saul, one of the characters, from inside the television.

In 2010, he guest-hosted the fourth episode of the 24th series of Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

Written works

Wogan has published a number of written works, including:

Banjaxed (October 1979)

The Day Job (1981)

Wogan on Wogan (1987)

Terry Wogan's Bumper Book of TOGs (1995)

Where Was I?!: The World According to Wogan (2009)

He has also written two autobiographical volumes:

Is It Me? (September 2000)

Mustn't Grumble (September 2006)

A diary was also published:

Wogan's Twelve (October 2007)

Other appearances

In 1981, Wogan set the world record for the longest successful golf putt ever televised, which was 33 yards at the Gleneagles golf course in a pro-celebrity TV programme on the BBC.

Wogan has appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2009. In an appearance on the BBC programme Top Gear, Wogan managed to become one of the slowest people to go around the test track as the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car", a Suzuki Liana. His time of 2:04 was faster only than Richard Whiteley, who lapped in 2:06. Wogan's time has been beaten by Johnny Vegas, who doesn't have a driving licence, and Bosnia war veteran Billy Baxter, who is blind.

Other television programmes he has presented:

Castlebar Song Contest for RTÉ as the host of the contest (1974)

Come Dancing (ballroom dance show) (1974–1979)

Blankety Blank (game show) (1979–1984)

Auntie's Bloomers (outtakes show) (1991–2001)

Points of View (viewers' letters) (1999–2008)

Wogan's Web

The Terry and Gaby Show (with Gaby Roslin) (2003–2004)

Wogan's Perfect Recall (game show) (2008–)

Other television programmes:

Being Human (TV series) cameo appearance in Series 2, Episode 2 (2010)

Wogan also narrated the 1987 BBC television series Stoppit and Tidyup.

Terry has become the host of the annual 'The Oldie of the Year Awards' held at Simpsons-on-the-Strand in London on behalf of The Oldie Magazine.

Honours and awards

Wogan received an honorary OBE in 1997, and was awarded an honorary knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2005. After asserting his right to British citizenship (he retains his Irish citizenship) that year, the knighthood was made substantive on 11 October 2005, allowing him to use the style "Sir". On 29 May 2007 he was made a Deputy Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire.

In 2004, he was awarded a Gold Blue Peter Badge.

On 15 June 2007, his home town of Limerick honoured him with the 'Freedom of the City' at a ceremony in Limerick's Civic Hall. The Freedom of Limerick honour dates from medieval times. Because of his long absence from the city as well as some well remembered, less than flattering remarks about the city in a 1980 interview, the local press carried out a vox pop which resulted in unanimous support for the award. He has since acknowledged the strength of character of the local population who "never give up ... never say die and ... are never beaten." "Limerick never left me" he is quoted as saying and "whatever it is, my identity is Limerick." In 2004, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Limerick as well as a special lifetime achievement award from his native city.

Sir Terry Wogan was inducted into The Radio Academy Hall of Fame at a gala dinner held in his honour on 10 December 2009.

Radio 2's Ultimate Icon

Wogan was announced as the Ultimate Icon of Radio 2 to commemorate the station's 40th birthday. The shortlist of 16 candidates had been published on the BBC Radio 2 website and the winner was announced live on Radio 2 during Family Favourites with Michael Aspel on 30 September 2007. He praised his fellow nominees, The Beatles, Diana, Princess of Wales and Nelson Mandela during his acceptance speech which was broadcast live on BBC Radio 2, and he chose Nat King Cole's Stardust as his Iconic Song of the last 40 years, which he had chosen twice before as his favourite record on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.

References in popular culture

As a well-known public figure, Terry Wogan has been referred to on television, in novels, in films, and in music. In the novelisation of the television series Yes, Prime Minister, for example, the fictional Prime Minister, Jim Hacker, discusses having an interview with Wogan. To his suggestion that Wogan be given a knighthood to ensure that the interview went well, his Private Secretary replied "Sir Terence Wogan? I hardly think so, Prime Minister."

Wogan is referred to in the song "The Dark of the Matinée" by Scottish indie rockers Franz Ferdinand. The relevant line goes "So I'm on BBC2 now telling Terry Wogan how I made it and / What I made isn't clear now, but his deference is and his laughter is / My words and smile are so easy now...Yes it's easy now. Yes it's easy now!". When Franz Ferdinand played a show in Limerick in 2009, one Irish reviewer wondered if the band had made the connection between lyric and city.

The British 2 Tone band Madness recorded a jingle for Wogan's show in 1982, which is included in the box set The Business - the Definitive Singles Collection. Track 9 of disk 2 is the "Terry Wogan Jingle" lasting 25 seconds in which the group sing the line "Ter-ry Wo-gan is a blankety blankety blank" to the tune of their hit single "Our House".

In 1989 Wogan was the subject of a single by the novelty music group A Tribe of Toffs, "Terry Wogan's on T.V. (Again!)".

Wogan is also referred to in 'The Hitcher' episode of the British comedy series, The Mighty Boosh. He appears briefly in the 'Celebrity Vicar' episode of The Vicar of Dibley, another Britcom, when Rev. Geraldine Granger (Dawn French), is interviewed on Wogan's radio programme, Pause for Thought. In March 2008, he had a voice only cameo as himself in the seventh episode of Ashes to Ashes, set in October 1981.

As someone whose career was principally based in the United Kingdom, Wogan was relatively unknown in the United States until the release of the 1991 film, The Commitments, in which Jimmy Rabitte repeatedly does mock interviews with "Terry". Wogan is also referred to in the Willy Russell play "One for the Road". In this, the characters play a game called "The Wogan Game" in which they act out interviews from the show, pretending to be Wogan.

Terry Wogan has also appeared in the lyrics of Ireland's Eurovision Song Contest 2008 entry, "Irelande Douze Pointe". In it, Dustin the Turkey sings "Drag acts and bad acts and Terry Wogan’s wig..."

A goblin named The Wogun appears in the webcomic Scary Go Round storyline "Crock o' Gold" as a radio/TV talk show host and general charlatan.

In August 2008 the Wolverhampton-based 'Party Band' "Rang-A-Tang" released a single entitled "Very Terry Wogan", which has been played on-air by Wogan himself.

See also

List of Eurovision Song Contest presenters

References

External links

TOGs' website

Telegraph article on Wogan

IFGB Terry Wogan Golf Tournament

The Oldie Magazine

Terry's Floral Dance on TOTP

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Category:1938 births Category:Living people Category:Irish game show hosts Category:Irish people Category:Irish television presenters Category:Deputy Lieutenants of Buckinghamshire Category:Eurovision Song Contest commentators Category:Eurovision Song Contest presenters Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:People from County Limerick Category:United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest Category:Sony Radio Academy Award Gold winners Category:Castlebar Song Contest Category:People of the Year Awards winners Category:RTÉ Radio 1 presenters Category:BBC radio presenters Category:British radio personalities Category:Irish radio personalities

cy:Terry Wogan de:Terry Wogan es:Terry Wogan fr:Terry Wogan ga:Terry Wogan it:Terry Wogan he:טרי ווגן simple:Terry Wogan sv:Terry Wogan

Coordinates	°′″N°′″N
name	Sir Terry Pratchett
birth name	Terence David John Pratchett
birth date	April 28, 1948
birth place	Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom
nationality	British
occupation	Novelist
genre	Comic fantasy
notableworks	DiscworldGood Omens
influences	P. G. Wodehouse, G. K. Chesterton, Lloyd Alexander
influenced	Natasha Rhodes, Catherine Webb, Samit Basu
website	http://www.terrypratchett.co.uk/
signature	}}

Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE (born 28 April 1948) is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best-known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels. Pratchett's first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971, and since his first Discworld novel (The Colour of Magic) was published in 1983, he has written two books a year on average.

Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s, and as of August 2010 had sold over 65 million books worldwide in thirty-seven languages. He is currently the second most-read writer in the UK, and seventh most-read non-US author in the US.

Pratchett was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) "for services to literature" in 1998. In addition, he was knighted in the 2009 New Year Honours. In 2001 he won the Carnegie Medal for his young adult novel The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents.

In December 2007, Pratchett publicly announced that he was suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's disease and, subsequently, made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust, and filmed a programme chronicling his experiences with the disease for the BBC.

Background

Early life

Pratchett was born in 1948 in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, England, the only child of David and Eileen Pratchett, of Hay-on-Wye. 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. Pratchett described himself as a "non-descript student", and in his Who's Who entry, credits his education to the Beaconsfield Public Library.

His early interests included astronomy; he collected Brooke Bond tea cards about space, owned a telescope and desired to be an astronomer, but lacked the necessary mathematical skills. However, this led to an interest in reading British and American science fiction. In turn, this led to attending science fiction conventions from about 1963/4, which stopped when he got his first job a few years later. His early reading included the works of H. G. Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle and "every book you really ought to read" which he now regards as "getting an education".

At age 13, Pratchett published his first short story "The Hades Business" in the school magazine. It was published commercially when he was 15.

Pratchett earned 5 O-levels and started A-level courses in Art, English and History. Pratchett's first career choice was journalism and he left school at 17 in 1965 to start working for the Bucks Free Press where he wrote, amongst other things, several stories for the Children's Circle section under the name Uncle Jim. One of these episodic stories contains named characters from The Carpet People. These stories are currently part of a project by the Bucks Free Press to make them available online. While on day release he finished his A-Level in English and took a proficiency course for journalists.

Early career

Pratchett had his first breakthrough in 1968, when working as a journalist. He came to interview Peter Bander van Duren, co-director of a small publishing company. During the meeting, Pratchett mentioned he had written a manuscript, The Carpet People. Bander van Duren and his business partner, Colin Smythe (of Colin Smythe Ltd Publishers) published the book in 1971, with illustrations by Pratchett himself. The book received strong, if few reviews. The book was followed by the science fiction novels The Dark Side of the Sun, published in 1976, and Strata, published in 1981.

After various positions in journalism, in 1980 Pratchett became Press Officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board in an area which covered three nuclear power stations. He later joked that he had demonstrated "impeccable timing" by making this career change so soon after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania, U.S., and said he would "write a book about my experiences, if I thought anyone would believe it".

The first Discworld novel The Colour of Magic was published in 1983 by Colin Smythe in hardback. The publishing rights for paperback were soon taken by Corgi, an imprint of Transworld, the current publisher. Pratchett received further popularity after the BBC's Woman's Hour broadcast The Colour of Magic as a serial in six parts, after it was published by Corgi in 1985 and later Equal Rites. Subsequently, rights for hardback were taken by the publishing house Victor Gollancz, which remained Pratchett's publisher until 1997, and Smythe became Pratchett's agent. Pratchett was the first fantasy author published by Gollancz.

Pratchett gave up working for the CEGB in 1987 after finishing the fourth Discworld novel, Mort, to focus fully on and make his living through writing. His sales increased quickly and many of his books occupied top places on the best-seller list. According to The Times, Pratchett was the top-selling and highest earning UK author in 1996. Some of his books have been published by Doubleday, another Transworld imprint. In the US, Pratchett is published by HarperCollins.

According to the Bookseller's Pocket Yearbook from 2005, in 2003 Pratchett's UK sales amounted to 3.4% of the fiction market by hardback sales and 3.8% by value, putting him in 2nd place behind J. K. Rowling (6% and 5.6% respectively), while in the paperback sales list Pratchett came 5th with 1.2% by sales and 1.3% by value (behind James Patterson (1.9% and 1.7%), Alexander McCall Smith, John Grisham and J. R. R. Tolkien). His sales in the UK alone are more than 2.5 million copies a year.

Current life

Terry Pratchett married his wife Lyn in 1968, and they moved to Rowberrow, Somerset in 1970. Their daughter Rhianna Pratchett, who is also a writer, was born there in 1976. In 1993 the family moved to a village north-west of Salisbury, Wiltshire, where they currently live. He lists his recreations as "writing, walking, computers, life". He describes himself as a humanist and is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.

Pratchett is well-known for his penchant for wearing large, black fedora hats, as seen on the inside back covers of most of his books. His style has been described as "more that of urban cowboy than city gent."

Concern for the future of civilisation has prompted him to install five kilowatts of photovoltaic cells (for solar energy) at his house. In addition, his interest in astronomy since childhood has led him to build an observatory in his garden.

On 31 December 2008 it was announced that Pratchett was to be knighted (as a Knight Bachelor) in the Queen's 2009 New Year Honours. He formally received the accolade at Buckingham Palace on 18 February 2009. Afterwards he said, "You can't ask a fantasy writer not to want a knighthood. You know, for two pins I'd get myself a horse and a sword." In late 2009, he did make himself a sword, with the help of his friends. He told a Times Higher Education interviewer that At the end of last year I made my own sword. I dug out the iron ore from a field about 10 miles away - I was helped by interested friends. We lugged 80 kilos of iron ore, used clay from the garden and straw to make a kiln, and lit the kiln with wildfire by making it with a bow.' Colin Smythe, his long-term friend and agent, donated some pieces of meteoric iron - 'thunderbolt iron has a special place in magic and we put that in the smelt, and I remember when we sawed the iron apart it looked like silver. Everything about it I touched, handled and so forth ... And everything was as it should have been, it seemed to me.

On 15 September 2010, Pratchett along with 54 other public figures signed an open letter, published in The Guardian newspaper, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI being accorded "the honour of a state visit" to the UK, arguing that he has led and condoned global abuses of human rights. The letter says "The state of which the pope is head has also resisted signing many major human rights treaties and has formed its own treaties ("concordats") with many states which negatively affect the human rights of citizens of those states". Co-signees included Stephen Fry, Richard Dawkins, Philip Pullman, Jonathan Miller and Ken Follett.

Alzheimer's disease

In August 2007 Pratchett was misdiagnosed as having had a minor stroke in 2004 or 2005 that was believed to have damaged the right side of his brain. While his motor skills had been affected, the observed damage had not impaired his ability to write. On 11 December 2007, Pratchett posted online that he had been newly diagnosed with a very rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's disease, which he said "lay behind this year's phantom 'stroke'." He has a rare form of the disease called posterior cortical atrophy, in which areas at the back of the brain begin to shrink and shrivel. Describing it as an 'embuggerance' in a radio interview, Pratchett appealed to people to "keep things cheerful", and proclaimed that "we are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism." Leading the way, Pratchett stated that he feels he has time for "at least a few more books yet", and added that while he understands the impulse to ask 'is there anything I can do?', in this particular case he will only entertain such offers from "very high-end experts in brain chemistry." Discussing his diagnosis at the Bath Literature Festival in early 2008, Pratchett revealed that he now found it too difficult to write dedications when signing books. In March 2008, Pratchett announced he was donating US$1,000,000 (about £494,000 at the time) to the Alzheimer's Research Trust, saying that he had spoken to at least three brain tumour (cancer) survivors yet he had spoken to no survivors of Alzheimer's disease, and that he was shocked "to find out that funding for Alzheimer's research is just 3% of that to find cancer cures." Of his donation Pratchett said: "I am, along with many others, scrabbling to stay ahead long enough to be there when the Cure comes along." Pratchett's donation inspired an internet campaign where fans hope to "Match it for Pratchett", by raising another $1,000,000.

In April 2008, the BBC began working with Pratchett to make a two-part documentary series based on his illness. The first part of Terry Pratchett: Living With Alzheimer's was broadcast on BBC Two on 4 February 2009, drawing 2.6m viewers and a 10.4% audience share. The second, broadcast on 11 February 2009, drew 1.72m viewers and a 6.8% audience share. He also made an appearance on The One Show on 15 May 2008, talking about his condition. He was the subject and interviewee of the 20 May 2008 edition of On the Ropes (Radio 4), discussing Alzheimer's and how it had affected his life.

On 8 June 2008, news reports indicated that Pratchett had an experience, which he described as: "It is just possible that once you have got past all the gods that we have created with big beards and many human traits, just beyond all that, on the other side of physics, there just may be the ordered structure from which everything flows" and "I don't actually believe in anyone who could have put that in my head". He went into further detail on Front Row, in which he was asked if this was a shift in his beliefs: "A shift in me in the sense I heard my father talk to me when I was in the garden one day. But I'm absolutely certain that what I heard was my memories of my father. An engram, or something in my head...This is not about God, but somewhere around there is where gods come from."

On 26 November 2008, Pratchett met the Prime Minister Gordon Brown and asked for an increase in dementia research funding.

Since August 2008 Pratchett has been testing a prototype device to address his condition. Despite some improvements in his condition, the ability of the device to alter the course of the illness has been met with scepticism.

In an article published mid 2009, Pratchett stated that he wishes to commit 'assisted suicide' (although he dislikes that term) before his disease progresses to a critical point. Pratchett was selected to give the 2010 BBC Richard Dimbleby Lecture, entitled Shaking Hands With Death, which was broadcast on 1 February 2010. Pratchett introduced his lecture on the topic of assisted death, but the main text was read by his friend Tony Robinson because of difficulties Pratchett has with reading – a result of his condition.

Due to his condition, Pratchett currently writes either by dictating to his assistant, Rob Wilkins, or by using speech recognition software.

In June 2011 Pratchett presented a one off BBC television documentary entitled Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die on the subject of assisted death.

Interests

Computers and the Internet

Pratchett started to use computers for writing as soon as they were available to him. His first computer was a Sinclair ZX81, the first computer he properly used for writing was an Amstrad CPC 464, later replaced by a PC. Pratchett was one of the first authors to routinely use the Internet to communicate with fans, and has been a contributor to the Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.pratchett since 1992. However, he does not consider the Internet a hobby, just another "thing to use". He now has many computers in his house. When he travels, he always takes a portable computer with him to write. His experiments with computer upgrades are reflected in Hex.

Pratchett is also an avid computer game player, and he has collaborated in the creation of a number of game adaptations of his books. He favours games that are "intelligent and have some depth", and has used Half-Life 2 and fan missions from Thief as examples.

Natural history

Pratchett has a fascination with natural history that he has referred to many times. Pratchett owns a greenhouse full of carnivorous plants.

In 1995 a fossil sea-turtle from the Eocene epoch of New Zealand was named in honour of him Psephophorus terrypratchetti by the palaeontologist R. Köhler.

Orangutans

Pratchett is a trustee for the Orangutan Foundation UK but is pessimistic about the animal's future. Following Pratchett's lead, fan events such as the Discworld Conventions have adopted the Orangutan Foundation as their nominated charity, which has been acknowledged by the foundation. One of Pratchett's most popular fictional characters, the Librarian of the Unseen University's Library, is a wizard in the body of an orangutan.

Amateur astronomy

Pratchett has an observatory in his back garden and is a keen astronomer. He has been on the BBC programme The Sky at Night.

Writing career

Awards

Pratchett received a knighthood for "services to literature" in the 2009 UK New Year Honours list. He was previously appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire, also for "services to literature", in 1998. Following this, Pratchett commented in the Ansible SF/fan newsletter, "I suspect the 'services to literature' consisted of refraining from trying to write any" (suggesting the title was more a recognition of success, than an acknowledgement of the fantasy genre). But then added, "Still, I cannot help feeling mightily chuffed about it."

Pratchett was the British Book Awards' 'Fantasy and Science Fiction Author of the Year' for 1994.

Pratchett won the British Science Fiction Award in 1989 for his novel, Pyramids, and a Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2008 for Making Money.

Pratchett has been awarded eight honorary Doctorates; University of Warwick in 1999, the University of Portsmouth in 2001, the University of Bath in 2003, the University of Bristol in 2004, Buckinghamshire New University in 2008, Trinity College Dublin in 2008, Bradford University in 2009, and the University of Winchester in 2009.

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents won the 2001 Carnegie Medal for best children's novel (awarded in 2002). Night Watch won the 2003 Prometheus Award for best libertarian novel.

In 2003 Pratchett joined Charles Dickens as the two authors with five books in the BBC's Big Read 'Top 100' (four of which were Discworld novels). Pratchett was also the author with the most novels in the 'Top 200' (fifteen). Three of the four Discworld novels that centred on the character Tiffany Aching 'trainee witch' have each received the Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book (in 2004, 2005 and 2007).

Pratchett was the recipient of NESFA's Skylark Award in 2009. In 2010 he received a World Fantasy award for lifetime achievement. He is the 2011 recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association, a Division of ALA, recognizing a significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.

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.

I Shall Wear Midnight won the 2010 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) as a part of the Nebula Award ceremony.

Fandom

Pratchett's Discworld novels have led to dedicated conventions, the first in Manchester in 1996, then worldwide, often with the author as guest of honour. Publication of a new novel may also be accompanied by an international book signing tour; queues have been known to stretch outside the bookshop and the author has continued to sign books well after the intended finishing time. His fans are not restricted by age or gender, and he receives a large amount of fan mail from them. Pratchett enjoys meeting fans and hearing what they think about his books; he says that since he is well paid for his novels, his fans "are everything to me."

Writing

Pratchett has said that to write, you must read extensively, both inside and outside your chosen genre and to the point of "overflow". He advises that writing is hard work, and that writers must "make grammar, punctuation and spelling a part of your life." However, Pratchett enjoys writing, regarding its monetary rewards as "an unavoidable consequence", rather than the reason for writing.

The fantasy genre

Although in the past he has written in the sci-fi and horror genres, Pratchett now focuses almost entirely on fantasy, explaining "it is easier to bend the universe around the story". In the acceptance speech for his Carnegie Medal he said: 'Fantasy isn't just about wizards and silly wands. It's about seeing the world from new directions', pointing to J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels and J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. In the same speech, he also acknowledged benefits of these works for the genre.

He "believes he owes a debt to the science fiction/fantasy genre which he grew up out of" and dislikes the term "magical realism" which is "like a polite way of saying you write fantasy and is more acceptable to certain people ... who, on the whole, do not care that much." He is annoyed that fantasy is "unregarded as a literary form" because it "is the oldest form of fiction" and he is "infuriated" when novels containing science fiction or fantasy ideas are not regarded as part of those genres.

On 31 July 2005, Pratchett criticised media coverage of Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling, commenting that certain members of the media seemed to think that "the continued elevation of J. K. Rowling can only be achieved at the expense of other writers". Pratchett has denied claims that this was a swipe at Rowling, and said that he was not making claims of plagiarism, but was pointing out the "shared heritage" of the fantasy genre. Pratchett has also posted on the Harry Potter newsgroup about a media-covered exchange of views with her.

Style and major themes

Pratchett is known for a distinctive writing style that includes a number of characteristic hallmarks. One example is his use of footnotes, which usually involve a comic departure from the narrative or a commentary on the narrative.

Pratchett has a tendency to avoid using chapters, arguing in a Book Sense interview that "life does not happen in regular chapters, nor do movies, and Homer did not write in chapters", adding "I'm blessed if I know what function they serve in books for adults." However, there have been exceptions; Going Postal and Making Money and several of his books for younger readers are divided into chapters. Pratchett has offered explanations for his sporadic use of chapters; in the young adult titles, he says that he must use chapters because '[his] editor screams until [he] does', but otherwise feels that they're an unnecessary 'stopping point' that gets in the way of the narrative.

Characters, place names, and titles in Pratchett's books often contain puns, allusions and culture references. Some characters are parodies of well-known characters: for example, Pratchett's character Cohen the Barbarian, also called Ghengiz Cohen, is a parody of Conan the Barbarian and Genghis Khan, and his character Leonard of Quirm is a parody of Leonardo da Vinci.

Another hallmark of his writing is the use of capitalised dialogue without quotation marks, used to indicate the character of Death communicating telepathically into a character's mind. Other characters or types of characters have similarly distinctive ways of speaking, such as the auditors of reality never having quotation marks, Ankh-Morpork grocers never using punctuation correctly, and golems capitalising each word in everything they say. Pratchett also made up a new colour, octarine, a 'fluorescent greenish-yellow-purple', which is the eighth colour in the Discworld spectrum—the colour of magic. Indeed, the number eight itself is regarded in the Discworld as being a magical number; for example, the eighth son of an eighth son will be a wizard, and his eighth son will be a "sourcerer" (which is one reason why wizards aren't allowed to have children).

Discworld novels often include a modern innovation and its introduction to the world's medieval setting, such as a public police force (Guards! Guards!), gun (Men at Arms), submarine (Jingo), cinema (Moving Pictures), investigative journalism (The Truth), the postage stamp (Going Postal), and modern banking (Making Money). The "clacks", the tower-to-tower semaphore system that has sprung up in later novels, is a mechanical version of our modern Internet, with all the change and turmoil that such an advancement implies. The resulting social upheaval driven by these changes serves as the setting for the main story and often inspires the title.

Influences

Pratchett makes no secret of outside influences on his work: they are a major source of his humour. He imports numerous characters from classic literature, popular culture and ancient history, always adding an unexpected twist. Pratchett is a crime novel fan, which is reflected in frequent appearances of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch in the Discworld series. Pratchett was an only child, and his characters are often without siblings. Pratchett explains "in fiction, only-children are the interesting ones." An example is the character Susan Sto Helit.

Pratchett's earliest inspirations were The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, and the works of Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. His literary influences have been P.G. Wodehouse, Tom Sharpe, Jerome K. Jerome, Roy Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and Mark Twain.

Publishing history

While Pratchett's UK publishing history has remained quite stable, his relationships with international publishers have been turbulent (especially in America). He changed German publishers after an advertisement for Maggi soup appeared in the middle of the German-language version of Pyramids.

Bibliography

The Discworld series

Pratchett's Discworld series is a humorous and often satirical sequence of stories set in the colourful fantasy world of Discworld. The series contains various 'story arcs' (or 'sub-series'), and a number of free-standing stories. All are set in an abundance of locations in the same detailed and unified world, such as the Unseen University and 'The Drum/Broken Drum/Mended Drum' public house in the twin city Ankh-Morpork, or places in the various continents, regions and countries on the Disc. Characters and locations reappear throughout the series, variously taking major and minor roles.

The Discworld itself is described as a large disc resting on the backs of four giant elephants, all supported by the giant turtle Great A'Tuin as it swims its way through space. The books are essentially in chronological order, and advancements can be seen in the development of the Discworld civilisations, such as the creation of paper money in Ankh-Morpork.

The subject of many of the novels in Pratchett's Discworld series is a parody of a real-world subject such as film making, newspaper publishing, rock and roll music, religion, philosophy, Ancient Greece, Egyptian history, the Gulf War, Australia, university politics, trade unions, and the financial world. Pratchett has also included further parody as a feature within the stories, including such subjects as Ingmar Bergman films, numerous fiction, science fiction and fantasy characters, and various bureaucratic and ruling systems.

Other Discworld books

Pratchett has written or collaborated on a number of Discworld books that are not novels in themselves but serve to accompany the series.

The Discworld Companion, written with Stephen Briggs, is an encyclopedic guide to Discworld. The third (and latest) edition was renamed The New Discworld Companion, and was published in 2003. Briggs also collaborated with Pratchett on a series of fictional Discworld "mapps". The first, The Discworld Mapp (1995), illustrated by Stephen Player, comprises a large, comprehensive map of the Discworld itself with a small booklet that contains short biographies of the Disc's prominent explorers and their discoveries. Three further "mapps", have been released, focusing on particular regions of the Disc: Ankh-Morpork, Lancre, and Death's Domain. Briggs and Pratchett have also released several Discworld diaries and, with Tina Hannan, Nanny Ogg's Cookbook (1999). The design of this cookbook, illustrated by Paul Kidby, was based on the traditional Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, but with humorous recipes.

Collections of Discworld-related art have also been released in book form. The Pratchett Portfolio (1996) and The Art of Discworld (2004) are collections of paintings of major Discworld characters by Paul Kidby, with details added by Pratchett on the character's origins.

In 2005, Pratchett's first book for very young children was Where's My Cow? Illustrated by Melvyn Grant, this is a realisation of the short story Sam Vimes reads to his child in Thud!.

Pratchett resisted mapping the Discworld for quite some time, noting that a firmly-designed map restricts narrative possibility (i.e., with a map, fans will complain if he places a building on the wrong street, but without one, he can adjust the geography to fit the story).

Science of Discworld

Pratchett has written three Science of Discworld books in collaboration with Professor of mathematics Ian Stewart and reproductive biologist Jack Cohen, both of the University of Warwick: The Science of Discworld (1999), The Science of Discworld II: The Globe (2002), and The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch (2005).

All three books have chapters that alternate between fiction and non-fiction: the fictional chapters are set within the Discworld, where its characters observe, and experiment on, a universe with the same physics as ours. The non-fiction chapters (written by Stewart and Cohen) explain the science behind the fictional events.

In 1999, Pratchett appointed both Cohen and Stewart as "Honorary Wizards of the Unseen University" at the same ceremony at which the University of Warwick awarded him an honorary degree.

Folklore of Discworld

Pratchett has collaborated with the folklorist Dr Jacqueline Simpson on The Folklore of Discworld (2008), a study of the relationship between many of the persons, places and events described in the Discworld books and their counterparts in myths, legends, fairy tales and folk customs on Earth.

Other novels

Pratchett's first two adult novels, The Dark Side of the Sun (1976) and Strata (1981), were both science-fiction, the latter taking place partly on a disc-shaped world. Subsequent to these, Pratchett has mostly concentrated on his Discworld series and novels for children, with two exceptions: Good Omens (1990), a collaboration with Neil Gaiman (which was nominated for both Locus and World Fantasy Awards in 1991), a humorous story about the Apocalypse set on Earth, and Nation (2008), a book for young adults.

After writing Good Omens, Pratchett began to work with Larry Niven on a book that would become Rainbow Mars; Niven eventually completed the book on his own, but states in the afterword that a number of Pratchett's ideas remained in the finished version.

Children's novels

Pratchett's first children's novel was also his first published novel: The Carpet People in 1971, which Pratchett substantially rewrote and re-released in 1992. The next, Truckers (1988), was the first in The Nome Trilogy of novels for young readers, about small gnome-like creatures called "Nomes", and the trilogy continued in Diggers (1990) and Wings (1990). Subsequently, Pratchett wrote the "Johnny Maxwell" trilogy, about the adventures of a boy called Johnny Maxwell and his friends, comprising Only You Can Save Mankind (1992), Johnny and the Dead (1993) and Johnny and the Bomb (1996). Nation (2008) marks his return to the non-Discworld children's novel.

Collaborations and contributions

The Unadulterated Cat is a humorous book of cat anecdotes written by Pratchett and illustrated by Gray Jolliffe.

After the King: Stories In Honour of J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Martin H. Greenberg (1992) contains "Troll Bridge", a short story featuring Cohen the Barbarian. This story was also published in the compilations Knights of Madness (1998, edited by Peter Haining) and The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy (2001, edited by Mike Ashley).

The Wizards of Odd, a short-story compilation edited by Peter Haining (1996), includes a Discworld short story called "Theatre of Cruelty".

The Flying Sorcerers, another short-story compilation edited by Peter Haining (1997), starts off with a Pratchett story called "Turntables of the Night", featuring Death (albeit not set on Discworld, but in our "reality").

Legends, edited by Robert Silverberg (1998), contains a Discworld short story called "The Sea and Little Fishes".

Digital Dreams, edited by David V Barrett (1990), contains the science fiction short story "# ifdefDEBUG + "world/enough" + "time".

Meditations on Middle-Earth (2002)

The Leaky Establishment, written by David Langford (1984), has a foreword by Pratchett in later reissues (from 2001).

Once More* With Footnotes, edited by Priscilla Olson and Sheila M. Perry (2004), is "an assortment of short stories, articles, introductions, and ephemera" by Pratchett which "have appeared in books, magazines, newspapers, anthologies, and program books, many of which are now hard to find."

Now We Are Sick, written by Neil Gaiman and Stephen Jones (1994), includes the poem called "The Secret Book of the Dead" by Pratchett.

The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2007 includes an article by Pratchett about the process of writing fantasy.

Good Omens, written with Neil Gaiman (1990)

The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy, edited by David Pringle (1998), has a foreword by Pratchett.

Adaptations

Radio

Pratchett has had a number of radio adaptations on BBC Radio 4: The Colour of Magic, Equal Rites (on Woman's Hour), Only You Can Save Mankind, Guards! Guards!, Wyrd Sisters, Mort, and Small Gods have all been dramatised as serials, as was Night Watch in early 2008, and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents as a 90-minute play.

Additionally, Guards! Guards! was also adapted as a one-hour audio drama by the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company and performed live at Dragon*Con in 2001.

Theatre

Johnny and the Dead and 14 Discworld novels have been adapted as plays by Stephen Briggs and published in book form. They were first produced by the Studio Theatre Club in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. They include adaptations of The Truth, Maskerade, Mort, Wyrd Sisters and Guards! Guards! Stage adaptations of Discworld novels have been performed on every continent in the world, including Antarctica.

In addition, Lords & Ladies has been adapted for the stage by Irana Brown, and Pyramids was adapted for the stage by Suzi Holyoake in 1999 and had a week-long theatre run in the UK. In 2002, an adaptation of Truckers was produced as a co-production between Harrogate Theatre, the Belgrade Theatre Coventry and Theatre Royal, Bury St. Edmunds. It was adapted by Bob Eaton, and directed by Rob Swain. The play toured to many venues in the UK between 15 March and 29 June 2002.

In 1996, Staffordshire University Drama Society performed a three night sell-out producton of "Wyrd Sisters" adapted as a pantomime, complete with Nanny Ogg as a dame and interludes by Death using passages of prose from the early Discworld novels.

A version of Eric adapted for the stage by Scott Harrison and Lee Harris was produced and performed by The Dreaming Theatre Company in June/July 2003 inside Clifford's Tower, the 700-year-old castle keep in York. It was revived in 2004 in a tour of England along with Robert Rankin's The Antipope.

In 2004, a musical adaptation of Only You Can Save Mankind was premiered at the Edinburgh Festival, with music by Leighton James House and book and lyrics by Shaun McKenna.

In 2008, Keele Drama Society performed "Men At Arms" at Keele University for four nights. The show was directed by Robert Russell.

In January 2009, the National Theatre announced that their annual winter family production in 2009 would be a theatrical adaptation of Pratchett's novel Nation. The novel was adapted by playwright Mark Ravenhill and directed by Melly Still. The production premiered at the Olivier Theatre on 24 November, and ran until 28 March 2010. It was broadcast to cinemas around the world on 30 January 2010.

Television

Truckers was adapted as a stop motion animation series for Thames Television by Cosgrove Hall Films in 1992. Johnny and the Dead was made into a TV serial for Children's ITV on ITV, in 1995. Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music were adapted as animated cartoon series by Cosgrove Hall for Channel 4 in 1996; illustrated screenplays of these were published in 1998 and 1997 respectively. In January 2006, BBC One aired a three-part adaptation of Johnny and the Bomb.

A two-part, feature-length version of Hogfather starring David Jason and the voice of Ian Richardson was first aired on Sky One in the United Kingdom in December 2006, and on ION Television in the U.S. in 2007. Pratchett was opposed to live action films about Discworld before because of his negative experience with Hollywood film makers. He changed his opinion when he saw that the director Vadim Jean and producer Rod Brown were very enthusiastic and cooperative. A two-part, feature-length adaptation of The Colour of Magic and its sequel The Light Fantastic aired during Easter 2008 on Sky One. A third adaptation, Going Postal was aired at the end of May 2010. The Sky adaptations are notable also for the author's presence in cameo roles.

Feature films

Pratchett has held back from Discworld feature films; though the rights to a number of his books have been sold, no films have yet been made. The Wee Free Men is set to be directed by Sam Raimi but has not started filming. Director Terry Gilliam has announced in an interview with Empire magazine that he plans to adapt Good Omens but as of 2007 this still needed funding. In 2001, DreamWorks also commissioned an adaptation of Truckers by Andrew Adamson and Joe Stillman but Pratchett believes that it will not be made until after "Shrek 17". However, in 2008 Danny Boyle revealed that he hoped to direct a Truckers adaptation by Frank Cottrell Boyce.

Comic books and graphic novels

Four graphic novels of Pratchett's work have been released. The first two, originally published in the US, were adaptations of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic and illustrated by Steven Ross (with Joe Bennett on the latter). The second two, published in the UK, were adaptations of Mort (subtitled A Discworld Big Comic) and Guards! Guards!, both illustrated by Graham Higgins and adapted by Stephen Briggs. The graphic novels of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic were republished by Doubleday on 2 June 2008.

Role-playing games

GURPS Discworld (Steve Jackson Games, 1998) and GURPS Discworld Also (Steve Jackson Games, 2001) are role-playing source books which were written by Terry Pratchett and Phil Masters, which also offer insights into the workings of the Discworld. The first of these two books was re-released in September 2002 under the name of The Discworld Roleplaying Game, with art by Paul Kidby.

PC and console games

The Discworld universe has also been used as a basis for a number of Discworld video games on a range of formats, such as the Sega Saturn, the Sony PlayStation, the Philips CD-i and the 3DO, as well as DOS and Windows-based PCs. The following are the more notable games:

The Colour of Magic, the first game based on the series, and so far the only one directly adapted from a Discworld novel. It was released in 1986 for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64.

Discworld, an animated "point-and-click" adventure game made by Teeny Weeny Games and Perfect 10 Productions in 1995.

Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!?, a sequel to Discworld developed by Perfect Entertainment in 1996. It was subtitled "Mortality Bytes!" in North America.

Discworld Noir is the first 3D game based on the Discworld series, and is both a parody of the film noir genre and an example of it. The game was created by Perfect Entertainment and published by GT Interactive for both the PC and PlayStation in 1999. It was released only in Europe and Australia.

Internet games

The world of Discworld is also featured in a fan created online MUD, multi-user dungeon. This game allows players to play humans in various guilds within the universe that Terry Pratchett has created.

Works about Pratchett

A collection of essays about his writings is compiled in the book Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature, edited by Andrew M. Butler, Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn, published by Science Fiction Foundation in 2000 (ISBN 0903007010). A second, expanded edition was published by Old Earth Books in 2004 (ISBN 188296831X). Andrew M. Butler also wrote the Pocket Essentials Guide to Terry Pratchett published in 2001 (ISBN 1903047390). Writers Uncovered: Terry Pratchett is a biography for young readers by Vic Parker, published by Heinemann Library in 2006 (ISBN 0431906335).

Arms

Notes	Terry Pratchett's arms were granted by Letters Patent of Garter and Clarenceux King of Arms dated 28 April 2010.
Crest	Upon a Helm with a Wreath Argent and Sable On Water Barry wavy Sable Argent and Sable an Owl affronty wings displayed and inverted Or supporting thereby two closed Books erect Gules.
Escutcheon	Sable an ankh between four Roundels in saltire each issuing Argent.
Motto	Noli Timere Messorem (Don't fear the reaper)
Previous versions	}}

References

External links

Terry Pratchett Official UK and international website (EU, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada)

Bookclub: BBC's James Naughtie and a group of readers talk to Terry Pratchett about his book Mort (audio)

Terry Pratchett Archive at Senate House Library, University of London

12 October 2009 radio interview discussing 'Unseen Academicals' and brain donation at BBC Wiltshire

Out of the shadows : Four videos in which Terry Pratchett reveals what it was like to be diagnosed with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), a rare variant of Alzheimer's disease.

2 May 2007 Live Webchat transcript at Douglas Adams Continuum

Meeting Mr Pratchett at The Age

Pratchett talks about his diagnosis with Alzheimer's, from the Daily Mail (UK)

On-line video interview for Czech TV (24. 4. 2011)

Category:English humanists Category:English children's writers Category:English fantasy writers Category:English science fiction writers Category:English journalists Category:Absurdist fiction Category:British Book Award winners Category:Comedy fiction writers Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:People associated with the Discworld series Category:People from Beaconsfield Category:Prometheus Award winning authors Category:Worldcon Guests of Honor Category:British child writers Category:People with dementia Category:Knights Bachelor Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:People educated at John Hampden Grammar School

af:Terry Pratchett als:Terence David John Pratchett bs:Terry Pratchett br:Terry Pratchett bg:Тери Пратчет ca:Terry Pratchett cs:Terry Pratchett cy:Terry Pratchett da:Terry Pratchett de:Terry Pratchett et:Terry Pratchett el:Τέρι Πράτσετ es:Terry Pratchett eo:Terry Pratchett fa:تری پرچت fr:Terry Pratchett ga:Terry Pratchett gl:Terry Pratchett ko:테리 프래쳇 hr:Terry Pratchett is:Terry Pratchett it:Terry Pratchett he:טרי פראצ'ט la:Terentius Pratchett lb:Terry Pratchett hu:Terry Pratchett nl:Terry Pratchett ja:テリー・プラチェット no:Terry Pratchett nn:Terry Pratchett oc:Terry Pratchett pl:Terry Pratchett pt:Terry Pratchett ro:Terry Pratchett ru:Пратчетт, Терри simple:Terry Pratchett sk:Terry Pratchett sr:Тери Прачет fi:Terry Pratchett sv:Terry Pratchett tr:Terry Pratchett uk:Террі Пратчетт zh:泰瑞·普萊契

Coordinates	°′″N°′″N
name	Martin Brady
nationality	Irish
office	Senator
term start	August 2007
term end	April 2011
constituency	Nominated by the Taoiseach
office2	Teachta Dála
term start2	June 1997
term end2	May 2007
constituency2	Dublin North East
birth date	May 07, 1947
birth place	Virginia, County Cavan,Ireland
party	Fianna Fáil
spouse	Veronica Brady
children	3
website	}}

Martin Brady (born 7 May 1947) is a former Irish Fianna Fáil politician, who was served as a Teachta Dála (TD) and Senator from 1997 to 2011.

Born in Virginia, County Cavan, he was a member of Dublin City Council for the Donaghmede area from 1991–2004. Brady was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North East constituency. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1997 general election and retained his seat at the 2002 general election. He lost his seat at the 2007 general election and was also unsuccessful in the Seanad election for the Labour Panel in 2007.

He was nominated by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern to the Seanad on 3 August 2007. He was the Fianna Fáil Seanad spokesperson for Social and Family Affairs from 2007–11.

References

Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:Fianna Fáil politicians Category:Teachtaí Dála Category:Members of the 28th Dáil Category:Members of the 29th Dáil Category:Members of the 23rd Seanad Category:People from County Cavan Category:Local councillors in Dublin (city)

de:Martin Brady sco:Martin Brady