A new clothbound hardback edition of Terry Pratchett’s “seminal” lecture, Shaking Hands with Death, is set to publish 15 years after it was first broadcast. The new edition, out this October, will include an updated introduction by Rob Wilkins, director of the Terry Pratchett Estate and Pratchett’s biographer, and an afterword from Peter Serafinowicz, who voiced the character of Death in the reissues of the Discworld audiobooks.
Pratchett gave the 34th annual Richard Dimbleby lecture to an audience of over 2.1 million people, becoming the most-watched Dimbleby Lecture of the time according to the publisher. In Shaking Hands with Death, Pratchett explores his battle with Posterior Cortical Atrophy, a rare form of Alzheimer’s disease, urges a re-evaluation of end-of-life care and argues in favour of assisted dying.
“I was thrilled to be asked to contribute an afterword to Shaking Hands with Death,” said Peter Serafinowicz. “Voicing the character of Death in the Discworld audiobooks was a profoundly moving experience, and to reflect on that experience in tandem with Sir Terry Pratchett’s own writing on the subject has been an honour.”
“Shaking Hands with Death remains just as cogent, as urgent and as downright entertaining as it was when Terry’s lecture was first delivered back in 2010,” adds Rob Wilkins. “As a novelist, Terry spent a great deal of his life thinking about endings, and his thoughts on how to have both a good life and a good end remain as relevant and compelling as ever.”