Sir Terence David John Pratchett, OBE, more commonly known as Terry Pratchett, was an English novelist, humorist, and satirist, best known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is renowned for the popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels.

Pratchett's first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971. His first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, after which he wrote an average of two books a year. The final Discworld novel, The Shepherd's Crown, was published in August 2015, five months after his death.

With more than 100 million books sold worldwide in 43 languages, Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours. In 2001, he won the Carnegie Medal for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, the first Discworld book marketed for children. He also received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2010.

In December 2007, Pratchett announced that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He later made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust (now Alzheimer's Research UK) and became a patron of the charity. Pratchett died on 12 March 2015, at the age of 66.