What booked did Terry Pratchett find inspirational?
Mar. 15th, 2026 06:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrewduckerThis is from a post made here on Facebook. I'm copying it here, with the permission of the original author, so that people off Facebook can see it.
I had the pleasure of Terry’s company on a week-long Writer’s Retreat twice, in 1990, as part of a company of eight interesting people in Diss, Suffolk.
Terry later came to my wedding and gave me a proof copy of ‘Lords and Ladies’ as a wedding gift! I had never read his books before I met him, so I began with ‘Wyrd Sisters’ - and have carried on reading them ever since.
When he learned I was meeting up with Terry again, my local Librarian shouted ‘Oook!’ and collected up every book by Terry which he had in the Library, and asked him to sign them. This amused Terry - and shocked other participants! "You shouldn't write in Library Books" etc...
Terry and I were both reading Henry Mayhew’s ‘London labour and the London poor’ at the time.
I asked Terry to make a list of other books which he found inspirational. Here they are:
I had the pleasure of Terry’s company on a week-long Writer’s Retreat twice, in 1990, as part of a company of eight interesting people in Diss, Suffolk.
Terry later came to my wedding and gave me a proof copy of ‘Lords and Ladies’ as a wedding gift! I had never read his books before I met him, so I began with ‘Wyrd Sisters’ - and have carried on reading them ever since.
When he learned I was meeting up with Terry again, my local Librarian shouted ‘Oook!’ and collected up every book by Terry which he had in the Library, and asked him to sign them. This amused Terry - and shocked other participants! "You shouldn't write in Library Books" etc...
Terry and I were both reading Henry Mayhew’s ‘London labour and the London poor’ at the time.
I asked Terry to make a list of other books which he found inspirational. Here they are:
- ‘The Evolution Man’ by Roy Lewis.
- ‘The Specialist’ by Charles Sale.
- ‘The Canterbury Tales’ by Chaucer.
- ‘Fairy Tales’ by Charles Perrault.
- Jacqueline Simpson’s folklore books.
- Everything by J R R Tolkien and C S Lewis.
- ‘The Wind From the Sun’ by Arthur C. Clarke.
- ‘Cold Comfort Farm’ by Stella Gibbons (my favourite book).
- ‘Mistress Masham’s Repose’ and the Arthurian Trilogy by T H White.
- I also add the new series of novels set in St Mary’s by Jodi Taylor, of whom I am a keen fan, and strongly recommend. Terry told Jodi how much he liked her writings. Start with ‘Just One Da*ned Thing After Another’ and carry on enjoying!
- Edit - I forgot 'The Moomins' series!
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