Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Terry Pratchett Has Alzheimer’s
One of the most creative and funny writers I’ve ever enjoyed reading sent out some bad news today: Terry Pratchett has an early onset form of Alzheimer’s.
Author Terry Pratchett is suffering from a rare form of early Alzheimer’s disease, it has been revealed.
He said in a statement that with forthcoming conventions and the need to inform his publishers it would have been “unfair to withhold the news”.Discworld author Pratchett has sold more than 55 million books worldwide.
The writer, 59, who gave the news on the website of Discworld artist Paul Kidby, said the condition was behind a “phantom stroke” earlier this year.
Here’s hoping that the disease progresses at a glacial pace. Which, with the threat of global warming, hoping for anything “glacial” just seems downright unscientific right now.
Read the rest. Original posting here.
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I heart him, too. My 9 year old is reading Mort right now.
Very sad. There are a lot of breakthroughs with the disease going on now, much greater understanding of how it works, so here’s hoping maybe some of this will be of benefit to him. I lost my grandmother to Alzheimer’s, see some beginning signs in my own mother, and fear that I’ve got the timebomb ticking in me too. What a crap disease it is.
Well bloody hell.
Anyone that makes a snarky comment about this gets thrown into the scorpion pit. And is force-fed Omnian religious literature by Washpot. And has to shake hands with Foul Old Ron.
And then, to cap it all off, Esme will glare at them. Twice.
mr. lady: Mort is a very dangerous book. My father handed it to me when I was 10 immediately after my appendectomy. And I’ve been reading Discworld ever since. You have been warned.
Off Colfax,
Why else do you think I handed it to him?
Point, mr. lady. Definitely a point.
Sad news. Terry Pratchett is one of my favorite authors. For a writer, this must be devastating.