Coordinates	2°3′00″N102°34′00″N
Name	SCE Studio Liverpool
Type	Development Branch
Company logo
Foundation	1984 (originally Psygnosis)
Founder	Sony Computer Entertainment
Location city	Liverpool
Location country	England, UK
Key people	Mick Hocking, Group studio director
Industry	Interactive Entertainment
Products	Wipeout seriesFormula One seriesColony Wars series
Services	Video game development
Owner	Sony Computer Entertainment
Num employees	100 (as of May 2005)
Parent	Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios
Homepage	Official Site

SCE Studio Liverpool is a video game development house head-quartered at Wavertree Technology Park in Liverpool, England. It is part of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios. Founded in 1984 as Psygnosis, the company is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment and currently employs roughly 100 individuals comprising two development teams. Mick Hocking currently oversees Studio Liverpool's operations as Group Studio Director, a position he also holds within two other SCE-owned developers, Evolution Studios and Bigbig Studios.

Studio Liverpool, which is the oldest and second largest development house within Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's stable of developers, is best known for the Wipeout series of futuristic racing games, with the first instalment released on the original PlayStation in 1995. The studio is also known for the Formula One series of licensed racing games, and the Colony Wars series released on the original PlayStation.

History

Psygnosis

|250px|left]]

Founded by Ian Hetherington and Jonathan Ellis, the Liverpool-based Psygnosis was born from the ashes of the defunct 8-bit game company Imagine Software, where Hetherington was Financial Director. After the collapse of Imagine in 1984, the name and trademarks were bought by Ocean Software, while the rights of the software remained with original copyright owners. The first two games developed by the company, Bandersnatch (for the ZX Spectrum) and Psyclapse (for the Commodore 64), were fused into one to become Psygnosis' first release, called Brataccas. This game was originally created for the Sinclair QL, but was instead ported over to other Motorola 68000-based machines and released on the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, and Apple Mac in 1985.

Psygnosis produced only one title in 1986 called Deep Space, a complex, difficult space exploration game. The box artwork was very distinctive with a black background and fantasy artwork bordered in red. This style was maintained for the best part of ten years, with a Psygnosis game being easily identifiable on a shelf of miscellaneous games. For the next few years, Psygnosis' releases contained increasingly improved graphics, but were marred by similarly difficult gameplay and control methods.

The original company headquarters were located at the Port of Liverpool Building at the Pier Head in Liverpool, but soon moved to Century Buildings in Brunswick Business Park (also in Liverpool), and later moved down the road 200 metres to South Harrington Building in South Harrington Dock.

Although Psygnosis primarily became a game publisher, some games were developed fully or partly in-house. During the early days, artists were employed full-time at the headquarters, offering third-party developers, who were often just single programmers, a very high-quality art resource. This had the result of allowing Psygnosis to maintain very high graphical standards across the board, something for which the company became most famous. The original artists were Garvan Corbett, Jeff Bramfitt, Colin Rushby and Jim Bowers, with Neil Thompson joining a little later.

Closely following in the path of 1987 hit Barbarian with what was becoming a trademark high-quality introduction, Obliterator, released in 1988, contained an opening animation by Jim Bowers (now a digital matte painter for the movie industry) with the main character looking directly into the "camera". His face is animated with bewilderment that turns into anger, at which point he drops his guns and shoots at the observer. This short scene would further pave the way for many increasingly sophisticated intro animations, starting with 2D hand drawn sequences, and then progressing into FMV and 3D rendered movies created with Sculpt 4D on the Amiga. Eventually, Psygnosis would buy many Silicon Graphics workstations for the sole purpose of creating these animations.

While most games companies of the mid-to-late 1980s (including Psygnosis) were releasing identical games on both the Amiga and Atari ST, Psygnosis started to use the full potential of the Amiga's more powerful hardware to produce technically stunning games. It was these technically superior titles that brought the company its early success, with the landmark title Shadow of the Beast bringing the company its greatest success so far in 1989. Its multi-layered parallax scrolling and stunning music were highly advanced for the time and as such led to the game being used as a showcase demonstration for the Amiga in many computer shops.

Later, Psygnosis consolidated its fame after publishing the DMA Design Lemmings game franchise: debuting in 1991 on the Amiga, Lemmings was soon to be ported to a plethora of different computer and video game platforms, generating many sequels and variations of its concept through the years. After that, Psygnosis put unparalleled effort in producing Microcosm, a game that debuted on Japanese system FM Towns and was to become technical showcase and flagship title for new Commodore CD32 and SMSG 3DO multimedia consoles: although gameplay was never considered on par with technical aspects, graphics, music by Rick Wakeman and long FMV introduction were among the finest in company history at the time.

Psygnosis also received top billing for creating the "Face-Off" games in the Nickelodeon 1992 television game show, Nick Arcade, with such games as "Post Haste", "Jet Jocks" and "Battle of the Bands", among others.

However, Commodore financial troubles with subsequent bankruptcy, and the arrival of new relevant actors in video gaming scene, were among the causes of a major shifting in Psygnosis commercial strategy.

Acquisition by Sony

In 1993 the company was acquired by Sony Electronic Publishing. In preparation for the September 1995 introduction of Sony's PlayStation console in Western markets, Psygnosis started creating games using the PlayStation as primary reference hardware. Among the most famous creations of this period were Wipeout, G-Police, and the Colony Wars series, some of which were ported to PC and to other platforms.

The acquisition was rewarding for Sony in another aspect: development kits for PlayStation consoles. As it had previously published PSY-Q development kits for various consoles by SN Systems, Psygnosis arranged for them to create a development system for PS-X based on cheap PC hardware. Sony evaluated the system during CES in January 1994 and decided to adopt it.

As Psygnosis expanded after the Sony buyout, another satellite office was opened in Century Building with later offices opening in Stroud, England, London, Chester, Paris, Germany, and Foster City in California (as the Customer Support & Marketing with software development done in San Francisco), now the home of Sony Computer Entertainment America. The company headquarters has resided at Wavertree Technology Park since 1995.

The Stroud studio was opened in November 1993 in order to attract disgruntled MicroProse employees. Staff grew from initially about 50 to about 70 in 1997. Among the titles created at Stroud are Overboard! and G-Police.

On 29 January 2010 Sony made the following public statement: "It has been decided that production on a number of projects within Studio Liverpool will cease immediately due to project prioritisation. Our North West Studio Group has been and will continue to be a vital cog in the WWS family, with a history of producing genre defining games such as MotorStorm, WipEout, Formula 1 and WRC and this decision will have no impact of the role that the North West Studio Group will play in the future of all PlayStation platforms".

Games

3D Lemmings Winterland

Adidas Power Soccer

Adventures of Lomax

Agony

Air Support

Alundra

Amnios

Anarchy

Aquaventura

Armour-Geddon

Armour-Geddon 2: Codename Hellfire

Assault Rigs

Atomino

Attack of the Saucerman

Awesome

Baal

Ballistix

Barbarian

Barbarian II

Benefactor

Bills Tomato Game

Blood Money

Blue Ice

Bob's Bad Day

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Brataccas (1985)

Brian the Lion

The Carl Lewis Challenge

Captain Fizz Meets The Blaster-Trons

Carthage

Chronicles of the Sword

Chrono Quest

City of Lost Children

Colony Wars

Combat Air Patrol

Creepers

Cytron

Darker

Darkstalkers (PlayStation port)

Daughter of Serpents

Deadline (1996)

Deep Space

Defcon 5

Destruction Derby

Destruction Derby 2

Destruction Derby 64

Destruction Derby Raw

Discworld

Discworld II: Mortality Bytes! (except Saturn version)

Ecstatica

Ecstatica II

Eliminator

Expert Pool

F1 04

F1 05

F1 06

F1: Championship Edition (2006)

Formula 1

Formula 1 97

Formula 1 98

Formula One 99

Formula One 2000

Formula One 2001

Formula One 2002

Formula One 2003

G-Police

Global Domination

Globdule

Guilty

Hired Guns

Holiday Lemmings

Infestation

Innocent Until Caught

The Killing Game Show (a.k.a. Fatal Rewind)

Kingsley's Adventure

Krazy Ivan

Lander

Last Action Hero

Leander

Lemmings

Lemmings 2: The Tribes

Lemmings 3D

Lemmings Chronicles

Lemmings Paintball

Lemmings Revolution

Lifeforce Tenka

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Matrix Marauders

Menace

Metal Fatigue

Microcosm

Misadventures of Flink

Monster Trucks

Nevermind

Nitro

Novastorm

O.D.T. - Escape... Or Die Trying

Obitus

Obliterator

Oh No! More Lemmings

Ork

Overboard

Panzer Elite (Panzer Elite by Pygnosis is NOT the same as Panzer Elite by JoWood)

Perihelion

Prime Mover

Pro 18 World Tour Golf

Psybadek

Puggsy

Pyrotechnica

Rascal

Rastan

Retro Force

Riot

Roll Away

Rollcage

Rollcage Stage II

Rosco McQueen Firefighter Extreme

Rush Hour

Second Samurai

Sentient

Sentinel Returns

Shadow Master

Shadow of the Beast (1989)

Shadow of the Beast II (1990)

Shadow of the Beast III: Out of the Shadow (1992)

Shipwreckers!

Speedster

Spice World

Team Buddies

Tellurian Defense

Terrorpods

Theatre of Death

Thunder Truck Rally

Toy Story

Tricks N' Treasures

Walker

Wipeout

Wipeout 64

Wipeout: 2097/Wipeout XL

Wipeout 3

Wipeout Fusion

Wipeout HD

Wipeout Pure

Wipeout Pulse

X-It

Zombieville

See also

SCE London Studio

SCE Studio Cambridge

Evolution Studios

Bigbig Studios

CoLD SToRAGE (Tim Wright)

References

External links

Official Site

Psygnosis profile at MobyGames

Category:Sony Computer Entertainment Category:First-party video game developers Category:Video game companies of the United Kingdom Category:Video game developers Category:Companies based in Liverpool

Coordinates	2°3′00″N102°34′00″N
Playername	Marco van Basten
Fullname	Marcel van Basten
Dateofbirth	October 31, 1964
Height
Cityofbirth	Utrecht
Countryofbirth	Netherlands
Position	Striker
Youthyears1	1981–1982
Youthclubs1	Ajax
Years1	1982–1987
Years2	1987–1993
Clubs1	Ajax
Nationalcaps1	15
Nationalgoals1	13
Nationalcaps2	58
Nationalgoals2	24
Manageryears1	2003–2004
Manageryears2	2004–2008
Manageryears3	2008–2009
Managerclubs1	Jong Ajax
Managerclubs2	Netherlands
Managerclubs3	Ajax

Marcel "Marco" van Basten (Dutch pronounciation: [mɑrko vɑŋ bɑstən]) (31 October 1964) is a Dutch football manager and former football player, who played for AFC Ajax and A.C. Milan, as well as the Dutch national team, in the 1980s and early 1990s. He is regarded as one of the greatest forwards of all time and has scored 277 goals in a high-profile career cut short by injury. He was later the head coach of AFC Ajax and the Dutch national team.

Known for his strength on the ball, his tactical awareness and spectacular strikes and volleys, van Basten was named European Footballer of the Year three times (1988, '89 and '92) and FIFA World Player of the Year in 1992. Van Basten was voted eighth in a poll organised by the French weekly magazine France Football consulting their former Ballon d'Or winners to elect the Football Player of the Century. In 2004, a nationwide poll was held for the 100 greatest Dutch people (De Grootste Nederlander) and van Basten was number 25, the second highest for a football player.

In March 2007, Sky Sports ranked Marco van Basten the first on its list of the great footballers who had their careers cut short.

Playing career

Early years

Marco van Basten was born on 31 October 1964 in Utrecht. He began playing for a local team, EDO, when he was seven years old. A year later, he moved to UVV Utrecht. After 10 years there, he briefly played for another club from Utrecht, Elinkwijk.

Ajax

AFC Ajax signed van Basten for the 1981–82 season. He played his first game for Ajax in April 1982, scoring a debut goal in the 5–0 victory over NEC.

In the 1982–83 season, he competed with the European top scorer Wim Kieft for the position of centre forward, and scored nine goals in 20 league matches. After Kieft left for Serie A club Pisa the next season, van Basten solidified his position as the team's main attacker.

He became a top scorer in the league for four seasons from 1983–84 to 1986–87, scoring 117 goals in 112 matches. In the 1985–86 season, he scored 37 goals in 26 league matches, including six goals against Sparta Rotterdam and five against Heracles Almelo, and won the European Golden Boot. He also scored the winning goal in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final against Lokomotive Leipzig in 1987.

Milan

In 1987, Silvio Berlusconi signed van Basten for A.C. Milan, with fellow countrymen Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard joining in 1988. In his first season, Milan won their first Scudetto in eight years, but van Basten played only 11 games and was constantly troubled by an ankle injury.

In 1988–89, van Basten won the Ballon d'Or as Europe's top footballer. He scored 19 goals in Serie A and scored two goals in the final of European Cup as Milan triumphed against Steaua Bucureşti.

In 1989–90, he became Capocannoniere, Serie A's leading goal scorer, and Milan successfully defended the European Cup after beating S.L. Benfica in the final match.

Milan struggled in the 1990–91 season, as Sampdoria won the Scudetto. After van Basten fell out with Arrigo Sacchi, Berlusconi sacked the manager. Fabio Capello took over the following season, and Milan went undefeated in the league to win another Scudetto. Van Basten scored 25 league goals, and became Capocannoniere again.

In November 1992, he became the first player to score four goals in a Champions League match. The goals came against the Swedish team IFK Göteborg.

Milan stretched their unbeaten run into the 1992–93 season, going 58 matches over two seasons before they lost a game. Van Basten played exceptionally well in the early part of the season. He was again voted the European player of the year, becoming the third player after Johan Cruyff and Michel Platini to win the award three times.

His troublesome ankle injury recurred in a game against A.C. Ancona, forcing him to undergo another series of surgery. He returned for the last few games in the season, before Milan lost to Olympique de Marseille in the Champions League final. The match was van Basten's final game for the Italian club. He thereafter spent two years fighting to come back, but eventually announced retirement in 1995, at the age of 30.

After retirement

He played in the Demetrio Albertini testimonial at the San Siro in March 2006, and headed in a goal before being substituted early in the first half. On 22 July 2006, he also returned for the testimonial to celebrate the 11-year Arsenal career of Dennis Bergkamp, in what was the first game played at the new Emirates Stadium. He played in the second half for the Ajax legends team. He entered the match as part of a double substitution that also introduced Johan Cruyff.

In March 2007, Sky Sports ranked Marco van Basten the first on its list of the great footballers who had their careers cut short.

International

Van Basten's talent was already noticed at a young age and he was called up for the 1983 FIFA World Youth Championship. He made his senior debut that same year. At the UEFA Euro 1988, van Basten scored a total of five goals, including a hat trick against England, the winning goal in the semi-final against West Germany, and a spectacular volley in the final against the Soviet Union. He was the tournament's top scorer and was the only player to score more than two goals.

The Dutch national team exited early in the World Cup in the 1990 FIFA World Cup, losing to West Germany in the second round. Van Basten never scored in the World Cup Finals.

The Netherlands reached the semi-final of UEFA Euro 1992 when they lost to Denmark in a penalty shootout, with Peter Schmeichel saving a penalty shot from van Basten.

Managing career

Van Basten officially left A.C. Milan in 1995 and retired from football, stating he would never try management. However, he changed his mind and took a course with the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB). His first stint as a manager was as an assistant to his former teammate John van 't Schip with the second team of AFC Ajax in 2003–04. On 29 July 2004, van Basten was named the new manager of the Dutch national team, with van 't Schip as his assistant.

As a manager, he soon established himself as a man of strong principles. Van Basten famously dropped regulars like Clarence Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert, Edgar Davids and Roy Makaay and benched Mark van Bommel, because he believed that they were either past their prime or constantly underachieving.

There were also calls for van Basten to call up Dennis Bergkamp, who had retired from the national team six years earlier for a final "hurrah" as he was retiring that season. Van Basten then revealed to the media that he never intended to do so despite Bergkamp's own willingness.

For probably the first time in decades, none of the "Big Three" Clubs (AFC Ajax, PSV, and Feyenoord) provided the backbone for the national team. Instead, newcomer AZ led the way with players such as Denny Landzaat, Barry Opdam, Barry van Galen, Ron Vlaar, Jan Kromkamp and Joris Mathijsen. Other unheralded choices were Khalid Boulahrouz, Hedwiges Maduro, Ryan Babel and Romeo Castelen selected. Van Basten had also wanted to include Ivorian forward Salomon Kalou, but was thwarted when Kalou was denied Dutch citizenship by the immigration authorities headed by Rita Verdonk. Kalou eventually accepted a call-up to play for Côte d'Ivoire.

during a training prior to Euro 2008.]] Under his guidance, the team were unbeaten in their World Cup qualification group and made it through the group stages at the FIFA World Cup 2006, but were eliminated in a frenzied 1–0 loss to Portugal in the Round of 16. Van Basten was heavily criticised for dropping Ruud van Nistelrooy (who had scored 28 goals for the Netherlands) before this game, in favour of Dirk Kuyt, who did not score throughout the entire tournament.

In November 2006, van Basten recalled exiled A.C. Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf for a friendly against England at the Amsterdam ArenA. In May 2007, van Basten announced the end of his long-running dispute with Real Madrid forward Ruud van Nistelrooy, who had previously declared never to play for a Dutch national squad with van Basten as its manager. Other players, such as Roy Makaay, Mark van Bommel, Boudewijn Zenden, and Edgar Davids, however, remained out of favour.

Van Basten had a contract with the KNVB for managing the Dutch national side until 2008. The KNVB had expressed its wishes to extend his contract to include the World Cup qualification route to 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. On 22 February 2008, van Basten signed a four-year contract with AFC Ajax, starting from 1 July. His last tournament thus was the UEFA Euro 2008, where the Netherlands surprised with a strong round 1 performance. They were beaten in an upset by Guus Hiddink's Russia in the quarter finals.

Van Basten became trainer of Ajax after Euro 2008 but resigned on 6 May 2009 after his team failed to qualify for the UEFA Champions League.

Honours

Club

Ajax

UEFA Cup Winners Cup: 1987

Eredivisie: 1981–82, 1982–83, 1984–85

KNVB Cup: 1983, 1986, 1987

Milan

European Cup: 1989, 1990

Intercontinental Cup: 1989, 1990

European Supercup: 1989, 1990

Serie A: 1987–88, 1991–92, 1992–93

Supercoppa Italiana: 1988, 1992, 1993

International

UEFA European Championship: 1988

Nasazzi's Baton: 1985

Individual honours

FIFA World Player of the Year: 1992

World Soccer Player of the Year: 1988, 1992

UEFA Best Player of the Year: 1989, 1990, 1992

IFFHS Best Player of the Year: 1988, 1989, 1990

Onze d'Or: 1988, 1989

Onze d'Argent: 1987, 1992

Bravo Award: 1987

UEFA European Championship 1988 Top Scorer and Best Player with 5 goals

European Footballer of the Year: 1988, 1989, 1992

Dutch Footballer of the Year: 1984–85

FIFA 100 (List of the greatest living footballers picked by Pelé): 2004

European Golden Boot: 1985–86

European Silver Boot: 1983–84

European Cup Top Scorer: 1989

European Cup Silver Top Scorer: 1993

Dutch League Top Scorer: 1983–84, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87

Serie A Top Scorer: 1989–90, 1991–92

Serie A Silver Top Scorer: 1988–89

World Golden Boot: 1985–86

Statistics

Player

Manager

References

External links

Marco van Basten fansite

Marco van Basten extensive profile at AC Milan Online

Category:1964 births Category:Living people Category:Dutch expatriate footballers Category:Dutch footballers Category:Netherlands international footballers Category:AFC Ajax players Category:A.C. Milan players Category:Serie A footballers Category:Serie A topscorers Category:Eredivisie players Category:FIFA World Player of the Year winners Category:European Footballer of the Year winners Category:FIFA 100 Category:1990 FIFA World Cup players Category:UEFA Euro 1988 players Category:UEFA Euro 1992 players Category:UEFA European Football Championship-winning players Category:Dutch football managers Category:Netherlands national football team managers Category:2006 FIFA World Cup managers Category:UEFA Euro 2008 managers Category:AFC Ajax managers Category:Eredivisie managers Category:People from Utrecht (city) Category:World Soccer Magazine World Player of the Year winners Category:Expatriate footballers in Italy Category:Dutch expatriates in Italy

Coordinates	2°3′00″N102°34′00″N
Name	Sir Terry Pratchett
Caption	Pratchett speaking about dementia in 2009
Birthname	Terence David John Pratchett
Birthdate	April 28, 1948
Birthplace	Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
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/

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, subsequently making a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust, and filming 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.

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 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. His sales in the UK alone are more than 2.5 million copies a year. 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. 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 Follet.

Alzheimer's disease

In August 2007, Pratchett was misdiagnosed as having had a minor stroke in 2004 or 2005, which 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. 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." in Glasgow, August 2005]] 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.

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".

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 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

in 2008]] 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). The three 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. He is the 2011 recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the 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.

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.

Writing

Pratchett has said that to write, you must read extensively, both inside and outside your chosen genre and to the point of "overflow".

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" 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 unneccessary '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 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, or 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 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 postal service (Going Postal, although the narrative describes a previous service that collapsed), or modern banking (Making Money). The resulting social upheaval 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. 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. 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,), 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 Bromeliad 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.

A Stage 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 January 2009 the National Theatre in London 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, director of the National Theatre's highly successful 2005 Winter family show Coram Boy. 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.

, 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).

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)

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