Discworld creator Pratchett diagnosed with Alzheimer’s

This isn’t exactly comics-related news, but I know for a fact that many comics fans are also big fans of Terry Pratchett and his “Discworld” series of epic fantasy-satire novels. For those of you who haven’t yet heard the news, Pratchett has just announced that he has early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news. I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer’s, which lay behind this year’s phantom “stroke”.

We are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism. For now work is continuing on the completion of Nation and the basic notes are already being laid down for Unseen Academicals. All other things being equal, I expect to meet most current and, as far as possible, future commitments but will discuss things with the various organisers. Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there’s time for at least a few more books yet :o)

PS I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as ‘I am not dead’. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think – it’s too soon to tell. I know it’s a very human thing to say “Is there anything I can do”, but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry.

I don’t know about y’all, but it looks like I’ll spend the next month or so re-reading “Mort,” “Small Gods,” “Maskerade,” “Good Omens,” and the rest…