Sir Terry Pratchett: ’Imagination, not intelligence, made us human’

Sir Terry Pratchett is one of the modern world’s most renowned authors. The 38 tales of the Discworld series, set in a strange yet strangely familiar world on the back of a giant turtle, have defied the limits of genre and attracted adoring fans around the world. Translated into 32 languages and selling over 60 million copies worldwide, Pratchett received a knighthood in 2009. He has been winner of the British Science Fiction Award, the Carnegie Medal, the Writers Guild Award and the Smarties Prize Silver Award. He is also Britain’s most shoplifted author. In this exclusive Melbourne appearance, the satirist, novelist and much-loved icon joins Michael Williams for a broad, entertaining discussion at RMIT’s Storey Hall. Touching on Pratchett’s early work as a journalist, his first forays into fiction and his thoughts on death and religion, the author also shares insights into his stories and characters. Pratchett opens with a preview — read by his ’insistent’, Rob Wilkins — of Sam Vimes’ exploits from the fo