Towel Day: Douglas Adams remembered across the globe

From the Guardian, 25 May 2010

(I did a Google News Search on Terry Pratchett, hoping to find the earliest news mentions of him. The article below came up, and I was under the impression that it's date was 2000!  (Since that was the limit of my search!) But, turns out it was 25 May, 2010. In any event, t's interesting.)

From the Guardian:  Towel Day: Douglas Adams remembered across the globe

Are you the kind of hoopy frood who knows where your towel is? If so, you're in good company. All over the world today fans of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are heeding Douglas Adams's words that a towel is "about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have" and are conspicuously carrying one with them for the day in honour of the writer who died nine years ago.
Towel Day events are taking place around the world, and include a pub lunch in Brisbane, flashmobs in Brazil and Berlin, a picnic in Budapest, a Vogon poetry slam in Portland, Oregon, a beer party in Zagreb and a "nice cup of tea" event outside the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Many more people have simply pledged to carry a towel.

A further twist on the day is provided by Terry Pratchett fans, who "wear the lilac" on 25 May in honour of the events in the novel Night Watch and in support of Alzheimer's research, who are combining the two events by wearing lilac towels.

Although the actual date of Adams's death, of a heart attack at the age of 49, was 11 May, Towel Day is celebrated two weeks later, remaining faithful to the date of the first event, which was set up as a wake for fans soon after his sudden death. This year's event is the first since the widespread use of Twitter, and tweets by Adams's friends and followers, who count Stephen Fry and Neil Gaiman among their number, have spread awareness of the day. A website for the celebrations, towelday.org, is co-ordinating the events taking place across the world and urging fans to upload pictures of their towels to Flickr and YouTube and to tweet with the #towelday hashtag.

Although the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series was first broadcast more than 30 years ago, it remains popular and has spawned six novels, a TV series, a computer game, three major stage productions and a film. Last year, to mark the 30th anniversary of the first book, the sixth novel, And Another Thing … by Eoin Colfer (the bestselling Irish author most famous for his Artemis Fowl series), hit the bestseller lists.

Hundreds of people gathered at London's South Bank wearing dressing gowns to celebrate the anniversary.
Adams's creation also went intergalactic in October last year. As Nasa's LCROSS lunar mission spacecraft travelled towards the moon at more than 9,000 kilometres per hour, it tweeted in the words of the existential sperm whale from the first novel: "And what's this thing coming toward me very fast? So big and flat and round ... it needs a big wide sounding name like 'Ow', 'Ownge', 'Round', 'Ground'! ... That's it! Ground! Ha! I wonder if it'll be friends with me?" Then it crashed into the moon.

Meanwhile, Cern, home to the Large Hadron Collider, is also joining in the fun. The Cern Bulletin writes: "The fact that Cern's latest building carries the number 42 has not escaped the attention of people both inside Cern and outside, particularly as we approach the anniversary of Adams' untimely death in May 2001. In honour of their favourite author, Adams' fans have declared 25 May International Towel Day – another cryptic reference to 'The Guide'. So if you see unusually large numbers of people carrying their towels with them on 25 May, Don't Panic, it's only about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have!"

 

London, UK: Death, Terry Pratchett's boss from hell

From Your Local Guardian:  Death, Terry Pratchett's boss from hell

The wild, witty and inventive world of Terry Pratchett’s’ Discworld brought to life in a musical fantasy will be hitting the stage in Kingston.

Mort the Musical tells the story of an affable young man struggling to find a job who receives an offer he can’t refuse, to become Death’s apprentice.

There are perks, he doesn’t even need to be dead to take the position, but the awkward trainee soon starts to make mistakes, not least falling in love with a princess who should be dead.

The play, directed by Luke Sheppard and presented by Music Youth Theatre, will appeal to children of all ages, with much for parents to enjoy too.

Sorcery, magic, comedy and romance in one fabulous evening, Mort the Musical is one not to be missed – if only as a reminder that however tough your boss it can’t be worse than working for the grim reaper!

Mort the Musical, August 29 to September 1. £8-£25. More details at rosetheatre kingston.org or call 08444 821556.

 

Terry Pratychett drawing from TV Tropes

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/TerryPratchett?from=Main.TerryPratchett

Wildlife centre wins more than £500,000 lottery cash

From Mercury 24:  Wildlife centre wins morethan £500,000 lottery cash

Secret World Wildlife and Rescue centre, in East Huntspill, launched its £4.4million Call of the Wild Appeal with the help of Discworld author Sir Terry Pratchett earlier this year, aiming to create a facility to aid more injured and abandoned animals.

Now, thanks to a grant of £502,600 from the lottery fund, work on the education centre part of the project, which involves the renovation and extension of a 17th century barn, will start in October and is expected to be completed by May 2013.

Secret World founder Pauline Kidner said: “The Heritage Lottery grant provided 79 per cent of the cash needed to build, equip and run the centre as well as funding a South West schools outreach programme over the next three-and-a-half years.”

The project will give thousands of schoolchildren from across the region direct access to the natural world at a time when the UK’s wildlife has never been under a greater threat.

Pauline said: “We have been inundated with wildlife orphans over the past couple of months of the breeding season but while what we do with the rescue side of the charity is vitally important, it is the education of our children that will have the greatest impact on wildlife in the future.”

The new wildlife education centre will include meeting rooms and a lecture theatre where schools will be encouraged to take part in educational programmes, giving youngsters a unique opportunity to learn about British wildlife and how to help save it.

Sir Terry Pratchett said Secret World was the South West’s only 24-hour wildlife rescue service and its work had never been more vital. He said: “Orphaned by traffic, hurt by our pollution and rubbish and forced out of their natural habitats by our developments, Britain’s wildlife is in serious decline so much so that even the sparrow and the much-loved hedgehog are endangered.”

 

Sci Fi and Discworld Collide For The Long Earth

From the Escapist:  Sci Fi and Discworld Collide For The Long Earth


British authors Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter talk about their novel, The Long Earth.
Terry Pratchett, the Discworld scribe, and Stephen Baxter, the science fiction author and creator of the Time's Tapestry series, have been working together on the first in what will be a trilogy: The Long Earth, an alternate-reality novel. The book has hit the shelves, which has come as a relief to both; but they haven't much time for rest, as they're busy working on the sequels.
The Long Earth features Joshua and Lobsang, a man and an AI, who discover the secret of traveling to alternate realities. It started as an idea of Pratchett's, long before he became famous for his Discworld series, but it languished in a drawer for decades. "Ideas are like tinsel," Pratchett claims, "anyone can have an idea, it's what you do with it that's the important thing." When he revisited the notion he realized there was good stuff in it, but he also knew that it was too much for one man to tackle. So he called on Baxter, an author he'd known for twenty years, because he needed someone who could say the word 'quantum' and knew what it meant.
The collaboration process was involved but relatively painless, thanks to mutual respect. Baxter describes the partnership as having four stages. In the first stage, person A suggests an idea and person B says it will never work. In the second, person B says it's none of his business whether A wants to go ahead and make a fool of himself with that silly idea. In the third, B says he quite likes the idea after all, and in the fourth B claims that the idea was his in the first place. "To which," Baxter says, "person A can only say, 'Yes, Terry.'"

Video interview at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/video/2012/jul/09/terry-pratchett-stephen-baxter-long-earth-video

 

Rhianna Pratchett announced as lead writer on Tomb Raider

From Jotstiq:  Rhianna Pratchett announced as lead writer on Tomb Raider

Rhianna Pratchett is handling lead writer duties on the Tomb Raider reboot from Crystal Dynamics. Pratchett, the daughter of fantasy novelist Terry Pratchett, is no stranger to video game storytelling, having contributed to the Overlord games, Prince of Persia and Mirror's Edge.

Pratchett has apparently been working on the narrative for Tomb Raider since "its early inception," and has brought "a depth and credibility to Lara" only she can, says Darrell Gallagher, head honcho at Crystal Dynamics. Pratchett, who is at San Diego Comic-Con 2012 this weekend, will participate in two Tomb Raider panels on Saturday. Full schedule and panel descriptions can be found past the break.

 

ir Terry Pratchett: opponents of assisted suicide stir up needless hysteria

From the Telegraph (June 15, 2012):  Sir Terry Pratchett: opponents of assisted suicide stir up needless hysteria 

The author, who suffers from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, accused opponents – especially Churches – of relying on arguments about “gas chambers” and “jackboots”.

He told a gathering of supporters of assisted dying in Zurich, Switzerland – home of the Dignitas clinic – that the steady stream of people from the UK travelling abroad to end their lives was the “shame of Britain”.

Sir Terry, the creator or the discworld fantasy books, attracted a furore in some quarters last year with a BBC documentary in which he followed Peter Smedley, a 71-year-old motor-neurone sufferer to the clinic to end his life.

He told the congress of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies that the “vast majority” of people in the UK supported assisted suicide but that politicians were cowed by a vocal minority of opponents.

“I have spoken about this many times and always there is vociferous opposition to the idea and ultimately the opposition is from a small number of people, usually associated with the churches,” said Sir Terry.

“Politicians take no notice nevertheless, and the opponents fill the air with dire warnings that elderly people would be persuaded to opt for an early death so as to release their money to the younger generation.,” he said.

“The opposition is very good at asking questions, and absolutely very bad at listening to answers, a usual reaction to any suggestion being it would lead to the gas chambers, and amazingly some newspapers in England print this stuff without questioning how likely it is that the most stable of all democracies on the planet would allow the wholesale killing of the innocent.”

He said that the BBC had received 750 letters of complaints about the programme before it had even been shown.

“Remarkably the wording of the letters had a consistent familiarity, this is not dialogue,” he said.

“You cannot have dialogue with somebody who thinks that shouting the word “Jackboots” is an argument.”

 

Terry Pratchett's Mort at the Toronto Fringe

From BlogTO:  Terry Pratchett's Mort at the Toronto Fringe

Terry Pratchett's beloved novel tells how Death comes to us all... and when he came to Mort, he came with a job offer. Stephen Briggs' stage adaptation brings Pratchett's Discworld to vibrant, hilarious, and often twisted life, complete with wizards, witches, threatened princesses, fair maidens, scheming courtiers, and a pale horse named Binky.

Adapted by Stephen Briggs
Directed by Ruth Pe Palileo

Official Site: http://www.socratictheatre.com/index.php/mort/

Performing at the Toronto Fringe Festival:
■ Saturday, July 7 at 7:00pm (Opening Night!)
■ Sunday, July 8 at 2:00pm
■ Friday, July 13 at 7:00pm
■ Saturday, July 14 at 7:00pm
■ Sunday, July 15 at 2:00pm

***Please note that show start times are sharp and we will not be able to admit any latecomers.***

Running time is approximately 90 minutes, no intermission.

 

Audio Book Review: The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

From BlogCritics:  Audio Book Review: The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

 Sci-fi and audio books can be a gamble. Long alien names can really become annoying and sometimes the stories just don’t seem to lend themselves to the spoken word. However when they do work then it can be a real treat. So it was with some trepidation that I downloaded The Long Earth which is the new collaboration between Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. The story takes eleven and half hours of careful reading by Michael Fenton Stevens.

One way to tell how well the story is written is to look at how quickly you start to believe the world in which it is set. Sometimes, as with werewolves, this can take a little getting used to. For The Long Earth I found the early chapters a little stilted. It wasn’t always clear what exactly was going on and where we were going. However once the foundations were laid we were up and running across the multiple or parallel worlds. You don’t get funny alien names, just normal ones like Joshua, Sally and Lobsang. Well maybe Lobsang is unusual but it works as a name for a computer.

The story really does draw you in. Not just with the detailed physical descriptions which are very realistic but it also starts you thinking about the scarcity of things and how that drives our world economies.
Anyway, let us look at the plot. It all starts with the premise that there are multiple parallel worlds which we can step into and across. The other worlds are all based on this earth or as the books calls it Datum Earth. Imagine earth after earth without people. Just trees, forests and wildlife in abundance. But then you start to get the variations. Some worlds are still in an ice age and others have been damaged by meteor strikes. The story becomes like a carnival with one wonder after another. It is fascinating, and you won’t want to stop listening. The story line is enough to hold it all together, but the real success of the tale lies in the many different scenarios across the worlds.

The reader does a good job with the various voices. He is consistent across the characters and manages to cope with some of the more unorthodox people.

Looking back on the story I can’t help but think that this is what sci-fi used to be about. Bringing a sense of wonder to the reader. Challenging their conceptions of the world without necessarily embracing intergalactic wars, alien monsters or just too much testosterone. Also, there is always the nagging thought that maybe what is sci-fi now might just turn out to be true.

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Hay Festival 2012: Terry Pratchett - the most wizard writer in the cosmos

From the Telegraph:  Hay Festival 2012: Terry Pratchett - the most wizard writer in the cosmos

Sir Terry Pratchett has a T-shirt that he’s rather proud of. “How to be a fantasy writer,” says the slogan. “1) Write an excellent story with a complex plot and great characterisation. Include social and political commentary, touch on such subjects as the nature of belief and journalistic freedom. 2) Put in one lousy dragon.”

Pratchett is, after JK Rowling, the most popular novelist in Britain. He has written more than 50 books – the 51st, The Long Earth, comes out this month – that have sold more than 80 million copies. Yet commercial success has not been matched by critical acclaim, with only a few members of the literary establishment, such as AS Byatt, seeing beyond the “fantasy” label to evaluate his work on its own merits. More recently, the “embuggerance” of a diagnosis of posterior cortical atrophy – a rare form of Alzheimer’s – and Pratchett’s emergence as a doughty campaigner for assisted suicide (and presenter of a moving and award-winning documentary on the subject) have ensured that the people have focused as much on what he says as what he writes.

This isn’t just a shame, it’s an injustice. Over the years, without many people noticing, Pratchett has created one of the most imaginative and fully realised fictional universes in modern literature. It would be tempting to compare it to Wodehouse’s world of Eggs, Beans and Crumpets. Except that Pratchett’s Discworld isn’t frozen in amber, but the product of decades of vital and violent evolution.

Given that many people will have picked up a Pratchett at some point, the conceit needs little elaboration. Somewhere in space sits a pizza-shaped world, rotating on the back of four elephants, who in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle (occasionally cocking their legs to let the spindly Sun fly past), as it swims its way through the cosmos. Originally, this was the setting for straightforward – if beautifully sketched – swords 'n’ sorcery pastiche, featuring the cowardly wizard Rincewind and his omnivorous, ambulatory luggage.

But the fourth Discworld novel, Mort, started to show Pratchett in a different light: this tale of an awkward, gangly lad taken on as Death’s apprentice managed to be as moving as it was funny. Soon, he had hit a vein of form unmatched by few British writers. Wyrd Sisters riffed on the witches of Shakespeare, introducing one of the classic literary double acts in the shape of elder witch Granny Weatherwax and her earthy sidekick, Nanny Ogg. Moving Pictures pastiched Hollywood; Guards! Guards! gave the world’s spear-carriers their due, and Small Gods satirised organised religion, democracy and Ancient Greece. There was also Good Omens, a collaboration with the then-unknown Neil Gaiman that brought the Apocalypse to suburban England, in a perfect fusion of styles of sensibilities.

As a teenager, I was convinced that Good Omens was the funniest book ever written. Yet as the years went by, my passion for Pratchett cooled, whether because I was becoming more mature, or because the production line that brought a new novel every six months appeared to have drained much of the passion and sparkle from his work.

On returning to his work later in life, however, I found something delightful: the gagsmith had transformed himself, without anyone noticing, into a satirist. Although he continued to rotate between subjects, he seemed to find himself increasingly drawn to the sprawling city of Ankh-Morpork, which in the course of his recent books has undergone a wrenching process of industrialisation. Modern worries about public services, financial greed, immigration, the disruptive impact of technology: all found an echo on Pratchett’s pages, alongside the silly jokes (such as one character turning out to be the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse, who left before they got famous), delightfully arcane trivia and the occasional knob gag.

The critics might fail to appreciate the results, but the public appears to think differently. An adaptation of Nation, a non-Discworld novel set amid a lost tribe of Pacific Islanders, was a smash hit at the National Theatre. Sky have adapted a series of Pratchett’s novels for television, again to strong ratings. His novels continue to sell by the million and is up for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize, announced today at Hay. It is might be too far to describe Pratchett as a second Wodehouse: his books are too baggy, loose and idiosyncratic for that. But they have brought great joy to an extraordinary number of people. It would be a shame if their author was remembered only as a campaigner, or a nerdy chronicler of dungeons and dragons, when his work offers so much more.