Non-fiction: Review of Terry Pratchett: Life with Footnotes by Rob Wilkins

While it's clear Harry Potter is the king of 21st century fantasy, it was Terry Pratchett and Discworld who finished the 20th with the largest fireworks and fanfare, and continued popping and fizzing even as the boy wizard took the reins. Such extraordinary output from Terry Pratchett in that time—two, sometimes three novels per year bursting with imagination and laughs. From whence the drive and energy? The world will never hear that side of the story from Pratchett himself, but he did leave the beginnings of an autobiography with his personal assistant, Rob Wilkins. In 2022 readers can finally begin to understand the man behind some of the most humorous yet human fiction ever written in Terry Pratchett: Life with Footnotes.

Life with Footnotes is an excellent biography. While following the tried and true sequencing of most biographies, birth to death, Wilkins constantly keeps an additional two or three narrative lines looping through the main timeline of Pratchett's life. Jumping forward and jumping backward as needed to properly present the tent poles of the author's life, the biography is far from a dry, year by year recounting. And yes, the warm humor is there, more in a moment.

The biography is a combination of Terry Pratchett's own years of scratching at an autobiography, Wilkin's experiences working alongside Pratchett for 2+ decades, and consultation with Pratchett's family, friends, and colleagues. While no biography can be complete, Life with Footnotes feels close. More importantly, however, it has an intimacy that biographies created by simple scholars can never have. The book is loaded with anecdotes and stories, big and small, from Pratchett's life. I cannot speak for every Pratchett, but I imagine for most this is the summation of the author's life they were looking for. (Note: readers looking for an in depth dive into their favorite Pratchett novel will need to look elsewhere.)

Something need be said of Wilkin's style. Many readers coming into a biography of Pratchett would consciously be expecting humor of some variety, and other readers, subconsciously. Wilkin's does not disappoint. There is a keen self-awareness throughout the book which lightly tickles the funny bone while relaying the facts and events of Pratchett's life. Whether it's Pratchett-isms or situational humor, droll footnotes or outright jokes, Wilkins does Pratchett justice in the writing itself.

A biography written by Pratchett's personal assistant is a potential two-edged sword. On one hand readers get a true inside look at Pratchett the man and Pratchett the writer in a way few other people outside his immediate family and friends could portray. The book would not be anywhere near as informative were it not for Wilkins' input. That being said, Wilkins' closeness to Pratchett likewise could have prevented him from being as objective as possible, to have a distance necessary for criticisms or negative aspects. To this point, Wilkins does describe some of Sir Terence's flaws—his “endearing mannerisms”. The book something of a celebration of Pratchett and his body of work, Wilkins doesn't linger long on these, however, instead choosing to sprinkle them throughout the proceedings, leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions.

In the end, I dare say Life with Footnotes is as close to everything the majority of Pratchett's readers could hope for in a biography of the author. Describing Pratchett's life, the impetus for his creative work, his personality, behind the scenes work, and weaving a warm layer of humor through it all, I imagine even Pratchett has made some backhanded compliment from the grave. For readers looking to understand the person behind the dozens upon dozens upon dozens of books Pratchett wrote, I can't imagine there is a better place to start than here. It is a labor of love in wholehearted tribute to one-of-a-kind.