Inside Salisbury: The Magic of Terry Pratchett
"Salisbury is, in my head, the headline show of the tour."
“Whether a dedicated fan of Terry Pratchett's works or someone newly discovering his brilliance, brace yourself to be enchanted, amused, and inspired by the life and legacy of this remarkable author.” ★★★★ Broadway Baby
By Annette J Beveridge
A TRIBUTE to the late great author of the ‘Discworld’ series is to take place at Salisbury Arts Centre in December.
Sir Terry Pratchett OBE was one of the world’s most widely read authors and wrote many of his stories while living in Salisbury.
Author Marc Burrows penned the first ever biography of Sir Terry Pratchett and received critical acclaim for his book. Now a live multimedia show based upon the book is coming to Salisbury at the end of a very successful run.
Marc Burrows said: “Although we’ve got some more shows to do next year, Salisbury is, in my head, the headline show of the tour. It’s difficult to undervalue how important the area was to Sir Terry. Since the mid 90s he lived in what he referred to as a “Manorette” in the village of Broad Chalke, just a few miles down the road and Salisbury was a huge part of his life.
“One of the last photos of him was taken outside Salisbury Cathedral (which served as a location in a scene in his Long Earth books), and the landscape surrounding his home became the inspiration for “The Chalk”, the home of the teenage witch Tiffany Aching in Terry’s landmark ‘Discworld’ series.”
Marc believes it is difficult to separate Terry from his work. His life was stories, his stories were his life.
He said: “I can think of no other author where the membrane that separates their life and work is so permeable. It’s barely there. There are people who put less of themselves into an autobiography than Terry put into books about wizards and dragons. He casually wrote about the meaning of life and made it look effortless.”
Sir Terry Pratchett OBE was one of the world’s most widely read authors selling more than 100 million copies of his books and performances have taken place on stage on seven continents. Pratchett’s short story ‘The Abominable Snow Baby’ was adapted by Channel 4 as a Christmas Day animation in 2021.
Sky released a feature film adaptation of his Carnegie Award winning book ‘The Amazing Maurice’ in cinemas in 2022, and ‘Good Omens’, a TV series based on the book Pratchett wrote with Neil Gaiman, had a second Amazon Prime season last autumn.
Written with the full endorsement of Narrativia (founded to promote the late author’s work) the show has sold more than 10,000 tickets across the UK in the past 12 months.
Marc added: “When he was knighted, he decided to forge his own sword from iron ore dug from his own land — the landscape of the Wiltshire countryside was hugely important to him. Bringing the show to Salisbury does, for me at least, feel like bringing it back home. It’s a huge honour and a perfect way to cap off an unbelievable year of touring The Magic of Terry Pratchett.”
Marc often writes on culture and social issues including for the Big Issue, The Guardian and Independent as well as his Edinburgh Fringe shows including ‘The Ten Best Songs of All Time’ and ‘Mind Your Head’. Marc’s second book, ‘The London Boys: David Bowie, Marc Bolan and the 60s Teenage Dream’ was published to considerable acclaim in 2022 and is in the early stages of adaptation into a feature-length documentary.
The performance will take place at Salisbury Arts Centre on Thursday, December 12, 2024 - 7.30pm for one night only.
Photo credits: Andrea C White and I Was There Photography
