Citation for Sir Terence ‘Terry’ Pratchett OBE
Tuesday 19 August 2014 at 3:00pm (in absentia)
Award being conferred:
Honorary Doctor of the University of South Australia (DUniv)
Award recipient:
Sir Terence ‘Terry’ Pratchett OBE
Citation delivered by:
Professor David Lloyd
Vice Chancellor and President, the University of South Australia
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Chancellor, the University of South Australia awards the Honorary degree of Doctor
of the University to a person of eminence who has made a distinguished
contribution to public service, or a field of academic endeavour or artistic pursuit.
It is my pleasure to confer Sir Terence “Terry” Pratchett OBE with the honorary
degree of Doctor of the University, in recognition of his distinguished service to the
community and for allowing us to dwell, ever so briefly, in the magical realm of
Discworld.
Sir Terence ‘Terry’ Pratchett, OBE is an English author of novels of comic fantasy. He
is the acclaimed creator of the global bestselling Discworld series, the first of which,
The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983. A master of the fantasy universe, he is
the great imaginer of dragons, creator of Rincewind the magician, of Nanny Ogg and
Granny Weatherwax, of the the incorruptible idealist and cynic, Commander Sir
Samuel (Sam) Vimes of the Watch.
His first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971. Since then he has written
two books a year on average. His Discworld book, Snuff, sold 55,000 copies in its first
three days. His latest novel, Raising Steam is number 40 in the Discworld series.
Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s, and has sold over 85 million
books worldwide in 37 languages. He is currently the second most-read writer in the
UK, and seventh most-read non-US author in the US.
It was his mother, he says, who helped him with book learning and unconsciously set
him upon the path he took. Pratchett told British journalist Tom Chivers his mother,
hoping to tempt him to read, offered him a penny per page which worked until he
came upon The Wind In The Willows and she no longer needed to pay him. He credits
the satirical magazine Punch with the formation of his comic voice: “It was,” he said
“the best way to read history; you got it without granny looking over your shoulder.”
As the Discworld literary canon evolved the magic of dungeons and dragons and
rogues and thieves, became more mortal, more human and dealt with subjects of
people, ingenuity and technology. Chivers says Pratchett is filled with nostalgia for
Citation for Sir Terence ‘Terry’ Pratchett OBE
Tuesday 19 August 2014 at 3:00pm (in absentia)
the future, a nostalgia for a time when you could take much of the world apart and
put it back together again.
Pratchett was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 for
‘services to literature’ and was knighted ‘for services to literature...(and) in
recognition of the huge impact his work has had across all ages and strata of society
and across the world’ in the 2009 New Year Honours. He has been awarded eight
honorary doctorates: from the University of Winchester; Bradford University; Trinity
College Dublin; Buckinghamshire New University; University of Bristol; University of
Bath; University of Portsmouth; and the University of Warwick.
His professional membership involvement includes being a Trustee for the
Orangutan Foundation (UK), a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist
Association, an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society, and a Permanent
member of the Society of Authors (UK).
Since being diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer’s disease in 2007, Pratchett has
become committed to the search for a cure, or at least to help find methods to
control it. He has donated over $1million to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, and
regularly undertakes interviews on the subject. He is also a high profile campaigner
on the right-to-die, for which he was most recently awarded ‘Best Documentary
Emmy’ at the International Emmy Awards, for the television program: ‘Choosing to
Die’, which focused on the topic of assisted suicide.
Pratchett is currently an Adjunct Professor at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, with a
role in postgraduate education in creative writing and popular literature.
He is the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal in Literature and
the British Science Fiction Award.
Chancellor, on behalf of the University of South Australia, I am pleased to present
Sir Terence “Terry” Pratchett OBE for the honorary degree of Doctor of the
University, in recognition of his distinguished service to the community, to
literature and to the creation of magic.