Terence David John Pratchett, OBE (born 28 April 1948) is a British fantasy, science fiction and children's author. He is best known for his hugely popular and long-running Discworld fantasy series. Pratchett is a popular and easily recognisable character at conventions and on television appearances. Famous for being prolific, Pratchett closely collaborates on adaptations of his books, such as computer games, plays and TV adaptations. He is notorious, however, for holding back on feature films - despite a number of his book rights being sold, there have only been a few made.Pratchett's first novel The Carpet People was published in 1971, and since his first Discworld novel (The Colour of Magic) was published in 1983, he has written, on average, two books a year.Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s, and as of December 2007 has sold more than 55 million books worldwide, with translations made in 33 languages. He is currently the second most-read writer in the UK, and seventh most-read non-US author in the U.S. In 2001 he won the Carnegie Medal for his children's novel The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents.Despite his massive popularity, Pratchett is often described as having a ‘cult following’ - a factor seen as having, in the past, hindered his literary recognition. Pratchett, who was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire "for services to literature" in 1998, holds the record for the most shoplifted books in Britain.