Skjeggtroll finished reading Terry Pratchett : a Life with Footnotes by Rob Wilkins
'People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way around.' …
It's a well written book, often funny, sometimes moving, but as a biography it's weak. The first part, which draws from Pratchett's unfinished autobiography, holds up the best, but the second part end up more as Wilkin's memorial of Pratchett than a biography about him.
It's not a hagiography, but it's all pretty surface-level. The book never really tries to get under the skin of Terry Pratchett, and neither does go into any depth about his authorship. For example, the book mentions Neil Gaiman's quote about Pratchett's anger, but it never explores this anger in any real measure, neither in how Pratchett as a person or in how it manifests in his books.
If you're a fan of Pratchett, it's a good read with enough interesting facts and details to keep you interested, but as biographies goes, it files under "mostly harmless."
![[image description: Pale green background with a blue square frame that has rounded corners. Inside the square is black text that reads "No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away... GNU". In blue it reads "Sir Terry Pratchett". Black text says "12 March 2015" Underneath the frame is text that reads: dwcon.org International Discworld Convention @dwcon End image description]](/images/status/5042a364-abc2-4842-85c7-6114500b1399.png "[image description: Pale green background with a blue square frame that has rounded corners. Inside the square is black text that reads \"No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away... GNU\". In blue it reads \"Sir Terry Pratchett\". Black text says \"12 March 2015\" Underneath the frame is text that reads: dwcon.org International Discworld Convention @dwcon End image description]")
