Along with all of those highly prestigious doctorates and gongs Terry Pratchett received plenty of encouragement from Her Royal Majesty as well. In 1998 he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature, joking I suspect the 'services to literature' consisted of refraining from trying to write any. Still, I cannot help feeling mightily chuffed about it. In 2009 that was upgraded to a full knighthood in the New Year's Honours List, making him Sir Terry Pratchett. To celebrate, Pratchett was also granted a coat of arms with the motto Noli Timere Messorem - which in English means Don't Fear The Reaper, a Blue Oyster Cult reference the superfan put into a few of his novels. Not only that, but having been flabbergasted at the thought of being knighted in the first place Parcthett also decided to have a sword forged. Rather than simply going to a speciality blacksmiths, though, Pratchett went out into the fields behind his house and found some iron ore from a meteorite and smelted it himself.
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/
