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Terry Pratchett

There is a danger that for uninitiated contemporaries Sir Terry Pratchett will become more associated with the early-onset Alzheimer’s which has cruelly struck him than with his brilliant contribution to our literature. His quietly heroic stance faced with the illness, and his support for the legalisation of assisted death, have made the news recently. It is for the wonderful Discworld series, however, that he will be remembered. The temptation is to compare him to other authors: he’s as prolific and conscience-prodding as Dickens; as funny as Wodehouse; as subversive as Swift. But Pratchett is Pratchett; and Sam Vimes; Nobby Nobbs; Death; Rincewind; Dibbler; Havelock Vetinari and 1000 other often unlikely heroes. Which makes him a hero for us too.

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Life, as I discovered, holds no more wretched occupation than trying to make the English laugh. - Malcolm Muggeridge
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On this day:
Rebel Army Lands in Furness - 1487, The First Ryder Cup - 1927, Stockport Air Disaster - 1967, Tiananmen Square Massacre - 1989, Shane Warne bowls 'Ball of the Century' - 1993
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