1. His Last Few Books Were Written Through Dictation
In March 2008 Terry Pratchett revealed that he had been diagnosed with Posterior Cortical Atrophy, a rare form of Alzheimer's disease. The author had to pay for the medicine he took as part of his treatment, with the NHS saying he was too young to get it for free, something which often comes with the diagnosis of early onset diseases. Despite those and numerous other setbacks from the diagnosis, Pratchett vowed to keep on writing. As his motor skills and memory started to fade, however, it became difficult to type himself. So how did he manage to keep putting out Discworld books at a similar rate as before the Alzheimer's? Dictation, mostly. Pratchett would write the novels aloud, with either his assistant Rob Wilkins typing them up or else relying on speech recognition software. In all Pratchett produced ten books with this method, from his Dodger titles for children to his Stephen Baxter collaborations to the upcoming Discworld novel The Shepherd's Crown. As recently as 2009 he announced I will not die of Alzheimer's. I shall make other arrangements; I'm going to take the disease with me. In the end, it was one of the few things Terry Pratchett was ever wrong about. RIP.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
