The
VILLAGERS
JULY 2011
Price
40p
The Voi c e of B a l qu h i d d er, L o ch e arn h e ad, Str at hy re & St Fi l l ans
Magic Master Sir Terry
talks to The Villagers Imagine being on holiday in a remote part of Australia for four nights and discovering that one of your ten holiday companions was Sir Terry Pratchett, an author who has had my husband and children laughing out loud over his books for the last twenty years. It seemed too good an opportunity to miss to see if he would ‘spare me a few minutes to answer a couple of questions’. I began by asking him what had made him choose fantasy as his genre and then sat back for the next hour and a half as the consummate storyteller and wordsmith beguiled me with his tales, interweaving his own life with some of the main characters from his novels, interspersed with his views and comments about teachers, the current state of the world and humanity in general. It was wonderful and I was an instant convert to the ‘fantasy’ world I had previously refrained from entering. He explained that when he was young his mum was always telling him stories ‘and stuff ’ partly inspired by her Irish grandfather. At school he realised that, because he was quite small, to survive he would have to become the joker in the gang, the kid who could make up apposite nicknames for the teachers and make them all laugh. He always loved reading and got a Saturday job in the local library. This enabled him to read books from the adult section which not only increased his vocabulary but also introduced him to the Punch magazines and began his interest in satire and the techniques of humour. He then progressed to Private Eye and Mad magazines, which led to him having an argument with his Head Teacher when he had taken these into school. His response was to decide to leave school early to start a job as a journalist on the local paper. He enjoyed reading fantasy books but realised that not many of them were funny and decided to write books that were
Sir Terry Pratchett and some imagery from his much-loved books
“manifestly silly but with people who are real. My characters are as real as I can make them”. He creates his characters by “never missing a chance to talk to someone who has something interesting to say” and nurses, and particularly midwives, were always “incredibly good value” with their stories of birth and death. When I asked him if he had a particular favourite from the many characters he had created, his initial choice was ‘Commander Vimes, head of the City Watch’ but he also had a soft spot for ‘Tiffany Aching’. He explained that he felt that she had provided him with a real test as an author as he had wanted to develop a character who would grow from a young child into a reflective young woman in her society over the course of four books. In the beginning Tiffany, who has read lots of fairy stories (Terry always puts books, diaries etc., into his own stories) realises that as she has brown hair she can never become the princess so she decides to become a “good witch” instead. She learns a lot from her “wise granny” including the golden rules of: “Speak for them that have no voices. Feed them that have no breakfasts. Bury them that is dead”. As Tiffany grows up she has to confront
“real evil” at the conclusion of the fourth novel. This was an ending Terry was very emotional talking about as he said adult readers will realise the very serious issues he is dealing with, all based on real life today. He feels that when things start going wrong society picks a scapegoat instead of recognising the importance of the commonality of mankind. On a lighter note he concluded by suggesting that The Wee Free Men might be a good starting point for anyone of any age not yet familiar with his stories. It has a number of Scottish characters including the ‘Nac Mac Feegles’; a wise old granny who is a shepherdess in the hills; witches... - and plenty of fun and asides to make us all laugh out loud: a Pratchett trademark! Jill Johnston