Properly Honoured

Thanks to Silverback for sending me this link which tells us that the author Terry Pratchett is to be knighted and will presumably be known from now on as Sir Terry Pratchett of Discworld.

There are lots of books in this house but his are the most battered - which is probably the greatest compliment to an author that there could be.

Ironically, the person who's read the fewest of them is probably me - yes, how interesting that doing a degree in Eng Lit has put me off reading novels ever since! - but he is a superbly enjoyable writer who sometimes has made me laugh out loud and not many can do that.

I think Emily (now known as Olli) has read every word he's ever written, probably several times, and Stephen's not far behind.

When Emily was eleven, Terry Pratchett came to Leeds to sign copies of his latest book and I went along. Emily would have loved to have gone, but couldn't as she was in a performance for the school that afternoon.

She had recently written to him to say how much she enjoyed his books. He had sent her a delightful letter back, explaining that it was a better idea to write to a writer than to almost anyone else, because they are lonelier and more likely to reply. He had taken a lot of care over the letter, and I wanted to thank him.

So I stood in the queue and when I got to the front I started to thank him for writing back to her, and saying that it had meant a lot.

"Oh yes, Emily," he said, "she's the one who likes Tolkien as well and you've just been on holiday to France."

It's ironic that this amazing feat of memory - for he must have been receiving hundreds of letters at that time - is my main memory of him, because of course he was fairly recently diagnosed with a form of early Alzheimer's Disease and has done a lot to raise awareness of the illness.

Hurrah for Sir Terry!