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Robert Watts TERRY PRATCHETT, the fantasy writer suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, has suggested he may have found God after years of atheism. The 60-year-old creator of the Discworld series has spoken of an unexplained experience shortly after his diagnosis with the condition.
“I’m certainly not a man of faith, but as I was rushing down the stairs one day . . . it was very strange. And I say this reluctantly, because I am trying to deal with this situation in as hardheaded a way as I can. I suddenly knew that everything was okay, that what I was doing was right, and I didn’t know why,” Pratchett said.
“It was a thought that all the right things are happening in the circumstances; and I thought, ‘Well, that’s all right then.’ I don’t actually believe in anyone who could have put that in my head – unless it was my dad, and he’s been dead a few years.”
In an interview in today’s News Review, the author also said: “It is just possible that once you have got past all the gods that we have created with big beards and many human traits, just beyond all that, on the other side of physics, there just may be the ordered structure from which everything flows.
“That is both a kind of philosophy and totally useless – it doesn’t take you anywhere. But it fills a hole.”
Previously, Pratchett has said he was “rather angry with God for not existing”.
The novelist, who has sold more than 55m books, described his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s last year as an “embuggerance”. He believes he may be able to write another two or so books before his condition becomes too severe.
He has also expressed his anger that some people of his age are considered too young to be treated with the drug Aricept on the NHS.
“If I ate myself into obesity I could get pills for that for nothing,” he said. “If I wanted Viagra I could get that for nothing. But I can’t get a drug that gives me that little bit of extra edge. I can afford £90 a month, of course, but there may be someone who can’t in his fifties.”
The author has pledged more than £500,000 to fund research into the disease.
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