Sir Terence David John Pratchett, OBE, more commonly known as Terry Pratchett, was an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels. Pratchett's first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971, and since his first Discworld novel (The Colour of Magic) was published in 1983, he wrote two books a year on average.

Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s, and as of December 2007, had sold more than 55 million books worldwide, with translations made into 36 languages. He is currently the second most-read writer in the UK, and seventh most-read non-US author in the US. In 2001, he won the Carnegie Medal for his young adult novel The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents.

With more than 100 million books sold worldwide in 43 languages, Pratchett was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours. He 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 made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust (now Alzheimer's Research UK, ARUK), filmed a television programme chronicling his experiences with the condition for the BBC, and became a patron for ARUK. Pratchett died in March 2015, aged 66.