Terry Pratchett Announces He Has Alzheimer's

Posted on December 12, 2007

Bestselling British author Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's. According to reports, Pratchett had trouble typing and went in for an MRI which revealed he had suffered a mini stroke. The cause was determined to be early onset Alzheimer's. Terry announced the news himself on the website of his illustrator Paul Kidby in a post entitled "An Embuggerance":

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.

Terry's latest bestselling Discworld novel is Making Money (HarperCollins) and he is scheduled to write a non-Discworld book in 2008.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Terry and his family.

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