Marc Burrows on The Magic of Terry Pratchett

Author and comedian Marc Burrows explores the life, influences, and impact of one of the greatest storytellers of all time with his celebration and exploration The Magic of Terry Pratchett, already an acclaimed book. Endorsed by the late author's estate, this multimedia lecture shines the light on Sir Terry Pratchett's interesting life, works of art and the importance of his activism surrounding dementia treatment and the right-to-die.

Marc told us more about his favourite Pratchett puns, the research he undertook for the book, the subsequent show and how many stars he thinks Sir Terry would give it...

Can you share your favourite quote, moment or character from Terry Pratchett's books?

I feel like I could give you ten from each book and still find myself sitting bolt upright in the middle of the night because I've suddenly realised I'd forgotten a good one. Let's go with this, because I think it's representative of why I love his work so much. There's a book called Soul Music, which is kind of a parody of the music industry. It's full of fairly tortured and therefore brilliant puns, like the sudden appearance of a literal deaf leopard, or the fact that there's a character called "Glod" just so he can drop in "We're on a mission from Glod" as a nod to The Blues Brothers, or the band called "We're Certainly Dwarfs", which is only funny if you've heard of They Might Be Giants. I love stuff like that.

Last time I re-read it two things hit me. One is that the whole book is a beautifully balanced treatise on grief. The central character in the book is Death himself, and he's grieving. I didn't realise that when I read it in 1996 or 2006 or any of the other half dozen times, but apparently I was ready to realise it now and suddenly find a whole new level of appreciation for it. The second thing I noticed is that the whole plot is reverse engineered to get to the punchline "There's a guy working down the chip shop, I'd swear he's Elvish". Pratchett does that a lot. It's not even one of his best books.

Whilst researching for the book and this show, did you discover anything unexpected?

That Terry Pratchett never told a 100% true anecdote in his life. I spent so long chasing down the facts behind all of his most famous stories and without fail there was always some element he'd polished to make more narratively satisfying. It just endeared him to me more.

Are there any similarities between your own comedic voice and Terry Pratchett's?

A few weeks ago, as an experiment, I popped a piece of my prose into ChatGPT and asked it who my influences were. There were no references to fantasy elements or anything like that, no reference to Pratchett himself, and it came back with "Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams". So, I think that's a resounding "yes". I think Terry taught me how to write comedy, in a way. As much as any of the stand-ups I know. Notably he taught me that a joke should either be accessible to everyone or completely invisible, so if you get it, it feels like a private moment shared between the writer and the listener/reader. He does that a lot. A tendency toward obscure knowledge and tortured puns is definitely inherited from Terry as well. My comedic voice obviously soaked in tons more, from all over the place, but I can't deny the Pratchett influence. Nor would I want to.

If Terry were to write a review of this show, what would he say and how many stars would he give it?

I think he'd love that it exists. Though he hid it well, he enjoyed being celebrated. He felt it was vindication, especially as critics were so snobby about his work for so long. And he was a "fan" himself; he understood fandom. He understood wanting to celebrate, analyse and gently tease the pop culture you love. I hope he'd actually like the show for itself. Although he'd probably be livid that I exposed a few of his notable fibs. I reckon he'd think it was four stars, maybe even five on account of me spending an hour talking about how great he was, but publicly give it three and a half - he never liked anyone to get too big for their boots.

If you had the opportunity to sit down and have a cuppa with Terry, what's the first question you would ask him?

"So when did you see that dead body?"

You'll need to see the show to get that, but I'd really like to know because I have spent literally a month in the British Library looking at bound newspapers from the mid-60s trying to answer that question. I think if I could sit down with him now, as in after the end of his life, after I'd got through "bloody hell, so what's it like then?", the question I'd most like to ask is "what would have come next?".

Having observed the world over the last eight years from his heavenly perch, what would he have written next? How would that mind have interpreted the world as it has gone since he left it? I'm pretty sure it would be brilliant and cutting and wise and hilarious. He always was.