Sir Terry Pratchett: from West Country press officer to much-loved author, his legacy will endure

When the first book in what was to become Terry Pratchett’s hit comic fantasy Discworld saga was published, he was - slightly improbably - the West Country press officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board.

But the challenge of answering queries on the three nuclear power stations in his patch was soon overtaken by the international success of The Colour of Magic which was to be the first of around 40 stories of the fictional Discworld, a flat disc balanced on the backs of four elephants which, in turn, stands on the back of a giant turtle.

Pratchett, who died at home today in Wiltshire, went on to become one of the best-loved and genially flamboyant of British writers and the biggest seller of the Nineties.

Known for wearing a large black fedora hat, he continued writing even after the surprise diagnoses in 2007 of a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer’s which was officially called posterior cortical atrophy (PCA).

With characteristic wit, he named it the “embuggerance,” donated around £500,000 to Alzheimer’s research and made a two-part documentary about how the illness was affecting his life which won a Bafta.

Two years later he was knighted and admitted afterwards: “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.”