theshepherdscrown:Tonight I attended the Terry Pratchett memorial and it was very emotional, I cried
theshepherdscrown:Tonight I attended the Terry Pratchett memorial and it was very emotional, I cried several times, but it also had the vitality and humour that we have come to associate with Pratchett. First arriving at the Barbican I was immediately surrounded by hundreds of fans, some cosplaying, some wearing memorabilia, but all obsessed with Discworld. It was an amazing feeling. I saw some brilliant cosplays including the Librarian, Havelock Vetinari, Brutha and many more. I went to my seat (in the stalls!) and found we had all been left a goody bag. You can see some of the stuff in the photo above but the full list is: A packet of tissues (much needed)A bottle of Ankh waterA tin of “dried frog pills” mintsA badge with the lilac and Alzheimers ribbonA letter containing a set of five photos of Pratchett. The book ‘Terry Pratchett: from birth to death, a writer.’ (A first and only edition).And then it began. We were greet by Havelock Vetinari who had traveled through l-space to greet us and remind us to turn off our phones. I will not fully go into the details of what happened. Rob Wilkins acted as the main speaker and sort of host. Rhianna Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Larry Finley (transworld publishers), Benard Pearson (the original cunning artificer), Tony Robinson and many more spoke. While it started on a solemn tone with a choir singing it turned much more upbeat as we remembered the wonderful words of Terry Pratchett. He had discussed what he would want to be involved in the memorial and had made Rob to outdo John Cleese eulogy for Graham Chapman by having him say fuck and bugger in front of the audience (and his mother).Steeleye Span played some songs from their Wintersmith album and one of Terry’s favourite songs. It was announced that another documentary is being made to follow on from Living with Alzheimers, Choosing to Die, and Facing Extinction. Several of Pratchett’s close friends who where involved in his writing were called up on stage and declared the Order of the Honeybee with Rhianna appropriated as the Queen Bee. They were all awarded with some beautiful jewellery and Neil was given Terry’s last hat. Several announcements were made about future projects but reiterated that no one else would attempt to complete any of his unfinished works. They announced:The Long Cosmos BookA fully funded exchange for one student between Dublin Trinity College and the University of South Australia to continues forever.A statue of Pratchett in Salisbury.A plaque to Pratchett outside Pratchett’s childhood library.They said that there was still not news on the naming of element 117.A Terry Pratchett biography written by RobA Discworld Encyclopedia A Discworld colouring bookA Small Gods graphic novelAn adaptation the The Wee Free MenAn adaptation of Mort written by Terry RossioThe short film of Troll Bridge which has been in production for twelve years will finish filming by the end of this year. An adaptation of Good Omens. Gaiman and Pratchett had agreed that they would only work upon anything Good Omens related together. However Pratchett left a letter to Gaiman after his death in which he ask Gaiman to agree to writing more Good Omens related stuff. Therefore Gaiman has agreed to write an adaptation of Good Omens, we weren’t told anything official other than that but Gaiman offhandedly mentioned doing six TV episodes. Finally we were shown a small animation of a watch helmet as part of the announcements which presumably means some sort of Watch adaptation.All of these need things will be happening over different time scales so but seem to all be planed to some extent. We ended it by singing Always look on the bright side of life from Monty Python and there were the finishing thank yous. It was an amazing evening and it was wonderful to see so many Pratchett fans, friends and family gathered together to celebrate his life. Thank you to everyone who made this so special! -- source link