Terry Pratchett ponders assisted suicide

Best-selling U.K. author Terry Pratchett has received the consent forms necessary to initiate the process of ending his life from Switzerland’s Dignitas clinic. Pratchett, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, says the only thing preventing him from signing the documents is that he has “a bloody book to finish.”

Last year, Pratchett delivered the Richard Dimbleby Lecture, in which he argued that the U.K. should set up special tribunals to allow people suffering terminal illnesses to seek assistance in ending their lives. At the time, he said that if he knew that he could die whenever he wanted, “suddenly every day would be as precious as a million pounds.”

According to the Guardian, Pratchett’s decision to begin formal proceedings toward ending his life does not mean that he has made a final decision on the matter.

Pratchett, the creator of the Discworld novels who was 60 when he was diagnosed, said his decision to start the formal process did not necessarily mean he was going to take his own life.

According to Dignitas, 70% of people who sign the forms do not go through with taking their own lives.

Meanwhile, the BBC’s decision to air Choosing to Die, a documentary that Pratchett made featuring, in part, the assisted suicide of 71-year-old hotel magnate Peter Smedley, is causing controversy for being “pro-euthanasia propaganda.” From an article in the Toronto Sun:

“This is yet another blatant example of the BBC playing the role of cheerleader in the vigorous campaign being staged by the pro-euthanasia lobby to legalise assisted suicide in Britain,” said Peter Saunders, a spokesman for the group Care Not Killing.

“The BBC is actively fuelling this move to impose assisted suicide on this country and runs the risk of pushing vulnerable people over the edge into taking their lives. It is also flouting both its own guidelines on suicide portrayal and impartiality.”

For its part, the BBC said that Pratchett’s film is about one man’s decision, and viewers must decide for themselves where they fall on the issue.

Sir Terry Pratchett launches prize for debut fantasy novels

Fantasy novelist Sir Terry Pratchett and Transworld Publishers are launching a new literary award for debut Commonwealth novelists called the Terry Pratchett Anywhere but Here, Anywhen but Now Prize. Despite its odd name, the award comes with a hefty £20,000 advance and Transworld Publishing contract.

Sir Terry offers this slightly confusing overview of the award on his website:

Anywhere but here, anywhen but now. Which means we are after stories set on Earth, although it may be an Earth that might have been, or might yet be, one that has gone down a different leg of the famous trousers of time (see the illustration in almost every book about quantum theory).

We will be looking for books set at any time, perhaps today, perhaps in the Rome of today but in a world where 2000 years ago the crowd shouted for Jesus Christ to be spared, or where in 1962, John F. Kennedy’s game of chicken with the Russians went horribly wrong. It might be one day in the life of an ordinary person. It could be a love story, an old story, a war story, a story set in a world where Leonardo da Vinci turned out to be a lot better at Aeronautics. But it won’t be a story about being in an alternate Earth because the people in an alternate Earth don’t know that they are; after all, you don’t.

The award will be judgeby Pratchett, Tony Robinson, Michael Rowley, and two senior members of the Transworld editorial team. The deadline for submissions is Dec.31, 2010, and a shortlist of six entries will be announced by March 31, 2011.

Terry Pratchett calls for assisted suicide “tribunals”

Terry Pratchett, U.K. author of the wildly popular Discworld series, says that special “tribunals” should be set up to allow people suffering serious medical conditions to seek help in terminating their own lives. Assisted suicide is currently illegal in the U.K., but Pratchett, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, has offered himself as a “test case” for the kind of tribunal he is proposing, which Sky News says “would include a legal expert in family affairs and a doctor who had dealt with serious, long-term illness.”

Pratchett is to deliver the Richard Dimbleby Lecture tonight, in which he will argue that being granted permission to end his life would make each day more precious. The Telegraph quotes Pratchett:

If I knew that I could die at any time I wanted, then suddenly every day would be as precious as a million pounds.

I certainly do not expect or assume that every GP or hospital practitioner would be prepared to assist death by arrangement, even in the face of overwhelming medical evidence. That is their choice. Choice is very important in this matter.

But there will be some probably older, probably wiser, who will understand.

Pratchett may be right about that. According to the same Telegraph article, 75% of those surveyed in a recent poll approved of making assisted suicide legal.

Super Thursday in Britain, and what U.S., U.K. publishers will be taking to Frankfurt

Americans have “Black Friday,” the Friday after Thanksgiving, which is the start of the Christmas shopping fiasco season, and which can, on occasion, lead to actual loss of life. It’s hard to imagine book buyers trampling store employees to death to get their hands on the new Audrey Niffenegger title, but British retailers are boning up for what they’re calling “Super Thursday” this Oct. 1, when a staggering 800 titles will publish in advance of the Christmas selling season.

With the months between October and December accounting for anywhere from 30% to 40% of annual sales, publishers obviously have a lot invested in the books that will drop this week. But one wonders how anyone hopes to break out of the pack with so many titles appearing on store shelves simultaneously. From the Guardian:

“It’s nice to have a day that feels quite special, because it is a rare title that is truly big enough to be a publishing event in itself,” says Julia Kingsford, head of marketing at bookseller Foyles. “But the inevitablility, with 800 books coming out on this one day, is that there will be things that are missed. There are an awful lot of books published, and not everything can be number one.”

Of course, British publishers can breathe (somewhat) easier knowing that the behemoth blockbuster of the fall, Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, has already dropped, so they’ll only have the ripple effects of its publication to deal with. Still, with new books from Terry Pratchett, Kate Mosse, Ozzy Osborne, and Stieg Larsson among those set to appear on Thursday, it’s a tight field.

Meanwhile, publishers in both the U.S. and Britain are gearing up for that other fall ritual: the Frankfurt Book Fair. Publisher’s Weekly gives a rundown of some of the big titles that reps will be taking with them to the annual fair, and it’s another cornucopia of big names and potential blockbusters. Some highlights:

• Imperial Bedrooms, Bret Easton Ellis’s sequel to Less than Zero
• 1Q84, Haruki Murakami’s doorstopper of a novel
• The Living Dead, zombie maestro George A. Romero’s first novel
• Stones into Schools, Greg Mortenson’s follow-up to the best-selling Three Cups of Tea
• Insatiable, a modern-day sequel to Dracula by chick-lit mainstay Meg Cabot
• Horns, by best-selling Stephen King progeny Joe Hill
• The Memory, an adult novel from “Sisterpants” author Ann Brashares
• Committed, the new book from Elizabeth Gilbert, of Eat, Pray, Love fame
• The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, a typically uncontroversial novel from Philip Pullman
• Revenge, the fiction debut from Sharon Osbourne (what’s good for the goose…)