When the biography of a beloved writer comes, it’s a voice from beyond you can’t ignore. And Sir Terry Pratchett has been accused of both: Literature; and of all dead authors, being the most alive. So when A Life With Footnotes, written by his assistant of 20 plus years, Rob Wilkins, popped up, this devotee booked a copy and a ticket to Sojha (Himachal Pradesh) to read uninterruptedly.

The prolific humourist (two to three releases a year) was the satirical dispenser of wisdom, pricker of  pomposity and lifter of the veil over how the world works. His books are instructional manuals to life and humanity, and in the tradition of cantadoras, can be dispensed as medicine. A prescription follows: Small Gods for those wrestling with the nature of religion, Nightwatch for the essence of duty, Johnny and the Dead for mortality, and The Fifth Elephant for international relations.