16096/01BEST-selling author Terry Pratchett was brought up short when among the audience at Devizes Corn Exchange he caught sight of the figure of Death, complete with scythe.

Mr Pratchett was visiting the town as a guest of the Well Wisher bookshop and an audience of nearly 350 people had assembled to hear him speak in the Corn Exchange's Ceres Hall.

Just a few moments into his talk, Mr Pratchett let out a cry and shouted: "He's here again! He follows me around everywhere I go!"

The Grim Reaper rose and took a bow and Mr Pratchett continued with his talk.

The figure of Death was actually local Terry Pratchett enthusiast Terry Crisp, who had got together the Grim Reaper outfit for a comedy revue being staged at the town hall on Saturday night in aid of the St John's Church Way Ahead appeal.

Mr Crisp said: "We were told to come dressed as our favourite character from Mr Pratchett's books, but I seemed to be the only one there in fancy dress."

Mr Pratchett's visit was the highlight of a series of events involving writers of children's books

organised by Karen Hellewell and Jo Williams of the children's bookshop in Long Street.

It was arranged through Mr Pratchett's publishers, Random House and Transworld.

Mr Pratchett explained how he had become involved in writing. He said he hadn't started reading until he was ten, having been put off it at school.

He said: "In my day, education was intimately associated with pain. As you got older they hit you higher and higher up your body until they aimed blackboard erasers at your head."

His uncle gave him a battered copy of Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows, which led him to his local public library where the literary world was opened to him. He applied for a part-time job there and began to write his own books.

He wrote a short story on his aunt's typewriter, earning himself a £14 first prize with which he bought his own typewriter and he was

soon off on his literary career. He took a job on his local newspaper, the Bucks Free Press, and went on to work at the Western Daily Press and other papers in the West Country.

It was while he was working as a press officer at the Central Electricity Generating Board, that he began writing the Discworld series of fantasy novels that have made him a household name.

He said: "There came a point where I realised I was making more money from my books than I was from my

ordinary job."

Since the 1980s Mr Pratchett has written over two dozen Discworld books and others involving different groups of characters such as Amazing Maurice and the Educated Rodents and the Wee Free Men.

He is a celebrated writer all over the world and his works have transferred to the stage, especially in the Czech Republic, where many of his books have been adapted for theatrical performance in Prague.

Recently he underwent heart surgery for an angioplasty, which was done while he was conscious, though sedated.

He began to hallucinate and at one point saw a man standing in the corner of the operating theatre selling sandwiches.

He said: "I kept sitting up and saying, he's got sandwiches.

"I woke up with bruises all over my arms from the nursing staff trying to keep me still.

"You could say I had a near sandwich experience."

Asked where he got his ideas from, Mr Pratchett was at a loss to say. But he had a theory.

He said: "My best time for ideas is the first two minutes after I wake up in the morning.

"I think someone in Australia, who has my mind on timeshare, comes up with ideas while I'm asleep."

After answering questions, Mr Pratchett signed books for most of those who attended the event on Friday night.