The recording of yesterday's the British Library event The Worlds of Terry Pratchett: Neil Gaiman and Rob Wilkins 21.11.2023! :) <3
Rob Wilkins on Colin Murray BBC Radio Five (it's a whole segment about Terry, also there Marc Burrows, Discworld Monthly and more, it's available to listen until May 27th 2023, Terry segment starts about 2:11:00) ❤❤❤
CM: He replied to every single letter. And one of your jobs early doors wasto sift through all of that fan mail. Can you give us a real first person insight into how much Terry Pratchett valued those who bought his books?
Rob: He valued them to the point where if he didn't reply to the mail, he could have easily, easily completed another novel. And I know the value on to him for completing another novel, not just financially, but another novel. Another novel out there. All of those ideas tipped within the pages and he gave that up for the fans to reply to the fan mail. And that really isn't an exaggeration. It wasn't just a few hours here and there replying to the fan mail. He dedicated a lot of time to it. And the fan mail ranged from, I love everything that you do, that's it just an outpouring of love, to really in depth taking apart the words and looking for the deep meanings, some of which were not there. And Terry didn't intend them to be there. But whatever people got from the novels, Terry was all is very respectful in his replies. And he took that incredibly seriously. Yes, he took that job as seriously as he did the VAT returns.
About Neil and Terry vs. Crowley and Aziraphale :)
Q: People often wonder if Aziraphale and Crowley are based on you, Neil, and Terry. Neil, is there any truth to that? And, Rob, if so, who's Aziraphale and who's Crowley?
Rob: There is no doubt in my mind: Neil Gaiman is Crowley, look at the glint in his eye.
Neil: I think it's perfectly fair to say that in the creation of Crowley, Terry took the things that I did, that he thought were hilarious, like wearing sunglasses indoors when I didn't need to - I was younger then, and he thought they were just hilarious, so he put a lot of me into Crowley, but then we both put a lot of ourselves into both of them. You know, there's... really what was most important for Terry was just that people would think he was the good one. So if any bricks came through any windows, they were gonna to come through mine. Which is why in all photos, I am the one in black. Terry, who never wore white, would always go and borrow white clothes from people to be [in white] in all the photos.
Rob [wearing a white jacket]: This wasn't worn... there's no accident that I'm wearing this today, Neil.