In the space left by someone dying there’s usually a house full of drawers containing papers that have instantly lost their significance, shoes that no one else will ever wear, and photographs of people no one else needs to be reminded of. Not many of us get to shuffle off and glance back at that last moment (While a chap with a scythe on a big white horse waits) to see our comet tail spelling out the word ‘legacy’. You have to have made something with your life for that to happen.

Pratchet...