The Ephebians believed that every man should have the vote (provided that he wasn't poor, foreign, nor disqualified by reason of being mad, frivolous, or a woman). Every five years someone was elected to be Tyrant, provided he could prove that he was honest, intelligent, sensible, and trustworthy. Immediately after he was elected, of course, it was obvious to everyone that he was a criminal madman and totally out of touch with the view of the ordinary philosopher in the street looking for a towel. And then five years later they elected another one just like him, and really it was amazing how intelligent people kept on making the same mistakes.

His family moved to Bridgwater Somerset briefly in 1957 following which he passed his eleven plus exam in 1959 earning him a place in John Hampden Grammar School. He was made an adjunct Professor in the School of English at Trinity College Dublin in 2010 with a role in postgraduate education in creative writing and popular literature. Pratchett's first novel The Carpet People was publiTerry Pratchettd in 1971 and since his first Discworld novel (The Colour of Magic) was publiTerry Pratchettd in 1983 he has written two books a year on average.

His latest Discworld book Snuff was at the time of its release the third-fastest-selling hardback adult-audience novel since records began in the United Kingdom selling 55000 copies in the first three days. Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett OBE (born 28 April 1948) is an English author of fantasy novels especially comical works. In December 2007 Pratchett announced that he was suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's disease.