Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett sold his first short story, The  Hades Business, at the tender age of 13 and bought a typewriter with the  proceeds. His first novel, The Carpet People, was published when he was 23 and he continued to write in his spare time while working on local  newspapers.

Oddly in his thirties he left journalism, and spent the next  eight years as a press officer for the Central Electricity Generating  Board. And then in 1983 The Colour of Magic, the first Discworld novel,  was published and the rest is - as they say - history.

In 1987 Terry realised that writing was his future and he gave up his job. These days, he lives behind a keyboard in Wiltshire and says  he 'doesn't want to get a life, because it feels as though he is trying  to lead three already'. He is passionate about orang-utans but doesn't give a monkey's about anything else.

As well as being awarded an OBE in 1998 and an honorary Doctorate of Literature from Warwick University in 1999, he is one of the most popular authors writing today. He has sold more than 45 million books and his  work has been translated into 27 languages.