IF you went on a magical mystery tour and took in the sights of the Bucks Free Press and Hollywood, the name of Terry Pratchett would connect the trail.

The multi-selling author began his career as a reporter on this newspaper and now he has got Steven Spielberg interested in his work.

The Dreamworks studio, co-owned by the famous film director, has bought the rights to Pratchett's Truckers, Diggers and Wings for nearly £700,000.

Terry says: "The money isn't very important here, and I wouldn't say that I'm too excited.

"I've learnt not to get excited, but what I am is satisfied and pleased.

"I was there at Dreamworks in Los Angeles recently and I'm particularly pleased that it is happening with that studio.

"There will be large bits chopped out of the trilogy to make it shorter. As long as the soul of the story is there that's the most important thing. It'll just be made in the same way that I write, it'll look superficially good but it won't be great art."

Terry will act as an advisor for the film, known as The Bromeliad Trilogy in America, which is about a group of 'nomes' who are forced out of their department store home.

It will be transformed into a computer animation by Andree Adamson and Joe Stillman who co-wrote and directed the forthcoming Shrek.

But if anyone doesn't need Hollywood, it's Terry Pratchett. His sci-fi books have sold more than 10 million copies during the last decade with many of them topping the bestsellers list. His Discworld series has become sold more than 23 million copies worldwide.

His latest novel Thief of Time has again hit the top of the bestselling book list with a blend of the delightful and the absurd featuring characters like History Monks, the Auditors and The Five Horsemen.

"I probably belong to the same classic evolution of humour that magazines like Punch made famous in the 1920s and 30s and then later developed in the 70s," he explains.

"I did read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy stuff when I was young and went to a lot of conventions. I saw some authors there and thought that they are just people. I was just a person and felt I could be an author.

"One of the great things about writing sci-fi is the people you get to meet. I can think of no other compatible trade in which you can meet lots of people dressed up as Spock at sci-fi conventions."

The 52-year-old author, who was born in Beaconsfield, left High Wycombe Technical High School in 1965 and joined the Bucks Free Press as a reporter.

"I literally went straight from school to the Bucks Free Press and learnt most of the tricks of the trade while I was there.

"I was probably one of the few journalists to have a proper apprenticeship. I was so much of an apprentice that I had to ask the editor Arthur Church if I could get married.

"I was earning eight quid a week but we all saw it as a privilege. I used to actually enjoy working Saturdays and Sundays and the evenings. It didn't really seem like hard work and I was pretty proud to do those shifts."

He stayed with the Bucks Free Press for five years and returned in 1972 as a sub-editor after stints on the Western Daily Press and The Bath Chronicle.

His first novel The Carpet People was published in 1971 but he only became a full-time writer in 1987 after writing Mort.

"I think the journalistic background helps me because after a certain time you realise you can do this stuff. If someone wants 250 words you can do it. It makes you stop being terrified of an empty page.

"Quite often with books I'm writing about 400 words a day. If you're working in a newsroom you're expected to write much more than that."

Keeping it short and sweet, then, is one of Terry's main attributes but he also says that he must continue to write come what may.

"It's sheer terror that drives me on to keep on writing. It's just general existential dread. I have this superstition that if I'm not writing anything I'm just a bit of a fraud, really."

"I always start the next book on the same day I finish the last book. I already have some notes ready for the next one."

So are Terry Pratchett fans the usual sci-fi bunch with their weird and wonderful fantasies or does he have anyone and everyone clutching his books?

"The popular image of who my readers are usually include a 14-year-old boy called Kevin who is wearing an anorak. Kevin is now a headmaster of a school . I was coming back from the States the other week and the senior flight attendant wanted me to sign something for her. I have three quarters of million readers in this country and about two thirds of them are women."

The father-of-one lives with his wife Lyn in Wiltshire and received and OBE in 1998 for services to literature. He also did a year's stint as Chairman of the Society of Authors in 1997.

"I just generally hang out and writing is my hobby as well as my job. A large part of my day is spent clearing the decks and it's amazing how much of the day can be spent on sheer office work and administration. I do have a garden but I have to say writing just takes up a great deal of time.

"I'm also travelling around quite a lot and that sometimes leave me in a little bit of a spin because of the different time zones."

So Hollywood may be calling but with more than 45 novels published, millions of readers and an imagination firing at full throttle, Terry Pratchett's world has hardly registered a tremor.