Are Terry Pratchett and Robert Rankin related?

[poohbcarrot]

Here are 10 similariies between Terry Pratchett and Robert Rankin. Are they by any chance related?

1. Both are published by Gollancz

2. Both have written about Richard Dadd's painting, The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke - The Wee Free Men/The Witches of Chiswick

3. Both have written, or are writing about football - Unseen Academicals/Knees Up Mother Earth

4. Both have written about music - Soul Music/Sex and Drugs an Sausage Rolls

5. There is an endorsement on Robert Rankin books from Terry Pratchett, "One of the rare guys who can always make me laugh"

6. Both have used Josh Kirby for book covers, see below for Sprouts of Wrath



7. Both are writers of fantasy humour

8. Both were born in the "South" within 15 months of each other

9. If you take the letters in the name "Robert Rankin" and change a few and add three more, you can spell "Terry Pratchett"

10. Um...er...that's it.

[chris.ph]

its a conspiracy

[poohbcarrot]

I bet they didn't walk on the moon, and I'm sure I saw them both together on the grass knoll in '63

[Dotsie]

Have they ever been seen in the same room together?

I've never read any Robert Rankin. He might be really funny, but the "whacky & zany" titles always put me off

[Tiffany]

Aah! But.... are Robert Rankins books as good as Terry's? Is my question.
Do you recommend reading them? If so, which is the best one to start with?

[poohbcarrot]

My favourite Robert Rankin book is Witches of Chiswick. The more you read, him the funnier he becomes because of all the running gags. I have re-read all his books at least three times (but I've lost count of how many times I've re-read TP)

[TheMole]

Good question! I think the solution could go like this:

Terry Pratchett: J. R. R. Tolkien never told you what happened to your father?
Robert Rankin: He told me enough! He told me you killed him!
Terry Pratchett: No. I am your father!

[Dotsie]

Terry Pratchett: J. R. R. Tolkien never told you what happened to your father?
Robert Rankin: He told me enough! He told me you killed him!
Terry Pratchett: No. I am your father!

Robert Rankin: Then what are you doing chopping my hand off? And you owe me twenty years of birthday presents!

That's the director's cut, anyway.

[Tonyblack]

I've read a few Robert Rankin books and they are quite funny (in a sort of groan-out-loud kind of way) but they aren't as good as Terry's books and some of them are pretty awful!

Actually I knew a woman on another board who discovered that she was Rankin's cousin - she wasn't Terry either.

[Tiffany]

Thanks Tony, maybe I'll not bother then.

[poohbcarrot]

The argument against Robert Rankin;

I've read a few Robert Rankin books and they are quite funny (in a sort of groan-out-loud kind of way) but they aren't as good as Terry's books and some of them are pretty awful!

Defence question; "Aha! So you admit to reading A FEW Robert Rankin books, do you?. And you admit they are QUITE FUNNY, do you?. Surely if they were no good you wouldn't have read MORE THAN ONE!"


The arguments for Robert Rankin.

My first witness is Terry Pratchett;
"Robert Rankin is a deep-down humourist, one of the rare guys who can always make me laugh"

My second witness is the Daily Express;
"Everybody should read at least one Robert Rankin book in their life"

My third witness is the Observer;
"Stark raving genius"

My final witness is the Independent;
"He becomes funnier the more you read him"

I rest my case, m'lud.

[Tonyblack]

Oh I'd certainly recommend him to people (and have). Yes I've read about three or four of his books - some were pretty good and at least one (The Antipope I think) I didn't find particularly funny at all.

Would I go out of my way to read his books? Probably not - but if I saw one in a charity shop for less than a Pound, I'd probably buy it and read it.

[poohbcarrot]

...and as for Dotsie;

I've never read any Robert Rankin. He might be really funny, but the "whacky & zany" titles always put me off

Surely the phrase "Never judge a book by its cover" has never been more apt

Tony, "The Antipope" was his first book. How many people rate "The Colour Of Magic" as TP's best book

[Tonyblack]

Tony, "The Antipope" was his first book. How many people rate "The Colour Of Magic" as TP's best book

That's true. It hasn't really put me off, but I really didn't think much of it at all - I'm glad it wasn't the first of his books that I read.

[Jan Van Quirm]

Well CoM was my first Pratchett (being so bleeding old I've read them all in order of publication virtually) and I loved it because at the time it was so unusual to see satire in the fantasy genre - and I liked the SoH. And no it isn't his best book but we grew up together

I haven't read any of Robert Rankin's books and that's a purely personal decision in that there was a resident judge at the court I worked in at the time who had the same surname. For some silly reason it put me right off...

These days I have tunnel passion and have consciously decided not to read any new authors unless I absolutely have to - and JK Rowling is one that I so wish I hadn't decided to make the exception in order to prove my rule so thoroughly. Now I just wait for the film/TV version to come out and see if I can be bothered to look at that - if its good I might then get the book but then again... JKR