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You may have heard about this already: Terry Pratchett announced that he has been diagnosed with a rare form of early onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Folks,
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)
Terry Pratchett
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.
I was really disappointed to hear this. Terry is one of my favorite authors and is far too young (59) for something like this to happen to him. At least he seems to be taking it in stride and trying to keep the mood light.
Hopefully he will be able to tough it out for another decade or two. The world sorely needs writers like him to make us think and laugh at the same time.
Posted by Aaron on December 13, 2007, 9:14 pm permalink top | general
You know, some people much younger than him are diagnosed with this disease. At his age some of them have already lost a lot of their memories.
My grand-father died when I was 8 (I think he was 63 at this point) and as far as I remember I cannot remember him without this disease. The only souvenir I have of him is the following one: he is sitting on the sofa asking a question. My grand mother answer him and 30 sec later he asks again the same question. And if it is the unique souvenir I have of him it is not unique in the time, it is just that I cannot remember having known him in a better shape than that. I felt so sorry for him…
Anyway, 59 may not be that old but contrarily to the common thoughts, this disease often appear in people that are not that old….
Nooo!
I still haven’t gotten around to reading his books yet, but it is a series that looks a lot of fun.