The blurb:
Terry Pratchett has earned a place in the hearts of readers the world over with his bestselling Discworld series - but in recent years he has become equally well-known and respected as an outspoken campaigner for causes including Alzheimer's research and animal rights. A Slip of the Keyboard brings together for the first time the finest examples of Pratchett's non fiction writing, both serious and surreal: from musings on mushrooms to what it means to be a writer (and why banana daiquiris are so important); from memories of Granny Pratchett to speculation about Gandalf's love life, and passionate defences of the causes dear to him.
With all the humour and humanity that have made his novels so enduringly popular, this collection brings Pratchett out from behind the scenes of the Discworld to speak for himself - man and boy, bibliophile and computer geek, champion of hats, orang-utans and Dignity in Dying.
This is a rare non-fiction outing from Terry Pratchett. I’m not including his non-Discworld works in the Pratchett Project, but this was on the shelf at the library, so I grabbed it.
It’s a journey through Pratchett’s life in bite-sized piece, starting with his experiences as a writer, some biographic pieces and, finally, the things that made him angry up to and including the dementia that finally ended his life.
This isn’t the sort of thing that I usually read; I’m less interested in the person than I am in what they write, unless something about their life influences their writing. I’m not a scholar to dissect writing too much; I just read it.
It’s an interesting book if you want to have a look at Pratchett himself, rather than the world he created. The material here is usually quite short, only a couple of pages each at most, and drawn from across a couple of decades, so it’s like a quick pan across the landscape of a life, not staying too much or getting too in-depth at any one point.
The thing is–and this point of view is purely personal–for me, everything that I need to know about Pratchett is in his books. The crucial things that drive the Discworld books that I respect most–Night Watch, Thud!, Monstrous Regiment, Mort–are his sense of anger at the unfairness of much of the world, his compassion for his characters, all that. I’m glad I read this but I already had what I need of Pratchett in his fiction, if that makes sense.
Started: 26 August 2025
Finished: 23 September 2025
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