It has become fashionable to knock Terry Pratchett lately, which it seems to an unfortunately trait that exists in the UK, instead of looking up to our outstanding individuals we build them up and then knock them down again.

In the US I think they call it a backlash.

Terry was born in 1948, April 28th to be precise, in the jolly town of Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. His literary career began when his short story 'The Hades Business' was published in the school magazine, Terry was 13 at the time. When he was 15 the story was published commercially and that was that.

Not quite.

After leaving school half way through his A level studies Terry took a job on the Bucks Free Press, whilst there he continued to read voraciously, took a National Council for the Training of Journalists proficiency class and passed his English A on day release.

In 1971 a small publishers released 'The Carpet People' which was released quietly and had few reviews, however these reviews were on the whole good and it convinced the publishers that Terry was someone they wanted to publish.

The Carpet people was followed by 'The Dark Sun of the Sun' in 1976 and 'Strata' in 1981, both apparently written in the long, dark evenings when he had nothing better to do. In between the writing, Terry had a few more job changes, moving from Bucks Free Press to the Western Daily Press, then back again. In 1973 he then joined the Bath Chronicle. By 1980 he was publicity officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board (now called Powergen) and was responsible for three nuclear power stations.

It was while working there that the first of the Discworld books was published but New English Library, a small publisher who were in the process of being taken over by Routledge at the time, 'The Colour of Magic' came out in 1983. Terry's friend and soon to become agent Colin Smythe, convinced N.E.L to forgo the option on the next book, he also managed to get Corgi to published it.

Corgi managed to get the BBC's 'Woman's Hour' to broadcast the novel as a six-part serial and the ball had begun to start rolling.

1986 saw the publication of 'The Light Fantastic' and it was about then that Terry and Colin realised that he really need to move to a major publishing house. Gollancz were the company and although they had never published any fantasy before, they struck up a three book deal. These being 'Equal Rites', 'Mort' and 'Sourcery'.

In September 1987, just after he had finished writing 'Mort' terry decided that he could afford to concentrate on his writing full time. He resigned from his position with CEGB, fed up of answering questions about dodgy nuclear reactors and got down to what he did best.

He anticipate a drop in income to begin with, but sales and income picked up very quickly, quicker than he expected (or hoped) and the next deal with Gollancz was for 6 books, with a larger advance. Since then, of course, his sales have hit the roof, go through it and stay there.

Since then all of Terry's books have been in the best seller list on release, and that has shown no sign of slowing down, as seen by the release in November 2000 of 'The Truth', which was the 25th Discworld novel. During the nineties Terry's books sold over 10million, and he is currently selling about 1.25 million per year. He in the UK's best selling living novelist.

It is hard to explain the secret of Discworld. The world itself is absurd. It is flat and round and rests on the back of four elephants, which are themselves carried through space on the back of a giant turtle. The books are funny. The early ones are simply funny, containing everything from subtle wordplay to unashamed antique jokes. As the series progressed, the stories have become more complex. The humour is still there, but so are many other things.

There are certain themes although the Discworld novels. There is quiet optimism. If there is a struggle, the good win - but not easily and often at some cost. There is a strong dislike of coercion us people, either by other people or gods or some concept of Fate or Destiny. There's a very frequent theme which says that what people happen to be doing does not define what the actually are.

Whatever he is as a novelist or a writer, Pratchett is a superb storyteller. While it is true that he writes primarily because he wants to, and to please himself, it is clear that he knows his audience. He is a master of the double laugh - the first at the joke, the second one, a few seconds later, is at the other joke which is revealed as the first one sinks in.

Terry has also written several children's novels, Tuckers, which became the first children's book to appear in the adults paperback fiction best-seller list, this was part of a trilogy, which included Diggers and Wings. He also wrote the three Johnny Maxwell books, 'Only you can save mankind', 'Johnny and the dead' and 'Johnny and the bomb'.

The future, the next Discworld book is due for release now, it's called the 'Thief of time' and features favourites Susan, granddaughter of death, and Death himself. We can also look forward to a 35000 word Discworld novel, 'The Last Hero' starring Cohen the Barbarian, and a cast of thousands, this is in the process of being illustrated by Paul Kidby and is due soon.

Terry is also working on a Discworld novel for younger fans, called 'The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents', which will be a look at the Pied Piper, if he lived on the Discworld.

For individual reviews on all the Discworld novels, click here.