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Terry Pratchett (1948 - 2015) was born in 1948 in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. He had his first story published when he was just thirteen, and after leaving school at seventeen to become a journalist he continued writing, publishing his first novel, The Carpet People, in 1971 and going on to produce the phenomenally successful Discworld and his trilogy for young readers, The Bromeliad. His first Discworld novel for children, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents was awarded the 2001 Carnegie Medal.
Terry Pratchett as well as numerous other books, winning many awards and becoming the UK’s bestselling author. He was appointed OBE in 1998.
He died in March 2015 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. You can find out more about his life and work at www.terrypratchettbooks.com
The completely and totally wonderful wiz(z)ard of words Terry Pratchett, has departed for what I'm sure will be a very interesting conversation, with cat and curry loving Death. Terry Pratchett has been one of my favourite authors since I was a teenager, and has left behind the gobsmackingly fabulous Discworld series. Having devoured and adored every single one, I felt rather hesitant about reading this, his 41st and last novel. I had contemplated leaving it for a while, setting it by, so it could wait, knowingly, raising its eyebrows at me. In the end, of course I couldn't resist and I just sank into the story and as I read, relived all the feelings this series has evoked in me. Tiffany Aching has to be on her mettle, a twisted powerful enemy is set for battle, Tiffany needs all the help she can get, including the Wee Free Men and of course she definitely needs Granny Weatherwax. Terry Pratchett has made me laugh (a lot), cry, and all the emotions inbetween, most importantly he has has made me consider, discover and think about our own world. I loved every second, every word of ‘The Shepherd’s Crown’, it has become one of my most loved and hugged books, and sits in pride of place on my bookshelf.
A Shivering Of Worlds. Deep in the Chalk, something is stirring. The owls and the foxes can sense it, and Tiffany Aching feels it in her boots. An old enemy is gathering strength. This is a time of endings and beginnings, old friends and new, a blurring of edges and a shifting of power. Now Tiffany stands between the light and the dark, the good and the bad. As the fairy horde prepares for invasion, Tiffany must summon all the witches to stand with her. To protect the land. Her land. There will be a reckoning...The Final DiscWorld Novel.
Authorised by Mr Lipwig of the Ankh-Morpork and Sto Plains Hygienic Railway himself, Mrs Georgina Bradshaw's invaluable guide to the destinations and diversions of the railway deserves a place in the luggage of any traveller, or indeed armchair traveller, upon the Disc. From the twine walk of Great Slack to the souks of Zemphis: edifying sights along the route; Ticketing, nostrums and transporting your swamp dragon: essential hints on the practicalities of travel; Elegant resorts and quaint inns: respectable and sanitary lodgings for all species and heights; and From worm-herding to Fustic Cake: diverting trivia on the crafts, foods and brassica traditions of the many industrious people for whom the railway is now a vital link to the Century of the Anchovy. Fully illustrated and replete with useful titbits, Mrs Bradshaw's Handbook offers a view of the Sto Plains like no other.
It's all change for Moist von Lipwig, swindler, conman, and (naturally) head of the Royal Bank and Post Office. A steaming, clanging new invention, driven by Dick Simnel, the man with t'flat cap and t'sliding rule, is drawing astonished crowds - including a few particularly keen young men armed with notepads and very sensible rainwear - and suddenly it's a matter of national importance that the trains run on time. Moist does not enjoy hard work. His ...vital input at the bank and post office consists mainly of words, which are not that heavy. Or greasy. And it certainly doesn't involve rickety bridges, runaway cheeses or a fat controller with knuckledusters. What he does enjoy is being alive, which may not be a perk of running the new railway. Because, of course, some people have Objections, and they'll go to extremes to stop locomotion in its tracks.
This title comes with a foreword by Neil Gaiman. Terry Pratchett has earned a place in the hearts of readers the world over with his bestselling Discworld series - but in recent years he has become equally well-known and respected as an outspoken campaigner for causes including Alzheimer's research and animal rights. A Slip of the Keyboard brings together for the first time the finest examples of Pratchett's non fiction writing, both serious and surreal: from musings on mushrooms to what it means to be a writer (and why banana daiquiris are so important); from memories of Granny Pratchett to speculation about Gandalf's love life, and passionate defences of the causes dear to him. With all the humour and humanity that have made his novels so enduringly popular, this collection brings Pratchett out from behind the scenes of the Discworld to speak for himself - man and boy, bibliophile and computer geek, champion of hats, orang-utans and Dignity in Dying.
To the consternation of the patrician, Lord Vetinari, a new invention has arrived in Ankh-Morpork - a great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power of all of the elements: earth, air, fire and water. This being Ankh-Morpork, it's soon drawing astonished crowds, some of whom caught the zeitgeist early and arrive armed with notepads and very sensible rainwear. Moist von Lipwig is not a man who enjoys hard work - as master of the Post Office, the Mint and the Royal Bank his input is, of course, vital...but largely dependent on words, which are fortunately not very heavy and don't always need greasing. However, he does enjoy being alive, which makes a new job offer from Vetinari hard to refuse...Steam is rising over Discworld, driven by Mister Simnel, the man wi' t'flat cap and sliding rule who has an interesting arrangement with the sine and cosine. Moist will have to grapple with gallons of grease, goblins, a fat controller with a history of throwing employees down the stairs and some very angry dwarfs if he's going to stop it all going off the rails...
In the four decades since his first book appeared in print, Terry Pratchett has become one of the world's best-selling and best-loved authors. Here for the first time are his short stories and other short form fiction collected into one volume. A Blink of the Screen charts the course of Pratchett's long writing career: from his schooldays through to his first writing job on the Bucks Free Press,; to the origins of his debut novel, The Carpet People ; and on again to the dizzy mastery of the phenomenally successful Discworld series. Here are characters both familiar and yet to be discovered; abandoned worlds and others still expanding; adventure, chickens, death, disco and, actually, some quite disturbing ideas about Christmas,all of it shot through with his inimitable brand of humour. With an introduction by Booker Prize-winning author A.S. Byatt, illustrations by the late Josh Kirby and drawings by the author himself, this is a book to treasure.
Dodger is a tosher - a sewer scavenger living in the squalor of Dickensian London. Everyone who is nobody knows Dodger. Anyone who is anybody doesn't. But when he rescues a young girl from a beating, suddenly everybody wants to know him. And Dodger's tale of skulduggery, dark plans and even darker deeds begins...
Winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction 2012. Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe. There are many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible than murder. He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches, occasionally snookered and out of his mind, but never out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a finding, there must be a chase and there must be a punishment. They say that in the end all sins are forgiven. But not quite all...
I’ve lost track of how many Discworld novels have flowed from the pen of the incomparable Terry Pratchett, thirty or so I believe. This is the latest madcap adventure from the world that so resembles ours yet is nothing like it. Having brought gnomes, newspapers and the post office to his creation, Pratchett now tackles football. It is a compelling mystery wrapped in exciting adventure wrapped in effortless parody wrapped in genius. As with all Pratchett’s work it is a joy to read and hard to put down but I would advise new readers to start a bit further back in the series in order to fully appreciate the cameo appearances of established characters here. Comparison: Christopher Fowler, Tom Holt, Jasper Fforde.
Shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2010. Shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize 2009 Hugely entertaining, this is a fully envisaged fantasy adventure, which makes serious points about the importance of the past from the master storyteller and author of the hugely popular Discworld series. Survival! Mau’s world is bowled over and swept away by a towering Tsunami. His past life has vanished and he must build a new life with the scraps he has left. Luckily, someone else has survived too and soon Daphne, or Trouser-Man as Mau calls her, are creating a new Nation building on the bits of knowledge from the past which won’t die away. The novel has been adapted for the stage – Olivier Theatre at The National Theatre in London - by the controversial playwright Mark Ravenhill. Nation will be the National’s family show opening in November 2009, following the success of previous family-friendly productions, His Dark Materials, Coram Boy and War Horse. Described by National Theatre Artistic Director Nicholas Hytner as “a wonderful book and, I suspect, perfect for an Olivier adaptation”, Nation is set on a desert island following a tsunami which wiped out most of the population.
Well Sir Terry has reached his 37th Discworld novel with Unseen Academicals and all the wonderful weirdness and humour is still there, this time revolving around a team of wizards who have to win a game of football without using any magic. Terry Pratchett is still very much on form.
‘Wintersmith' is another jewel in the wonderfully absurd crown that is the Discworld. Tiffany Aching grows in knowledge and power as she steps into a dance with winter and begins a, shall we call it… flirtation. As Tiffany grows older in these books, so the content becomes richer and a little more adult. While ‘The Wee Free Men’ and ‘A Hat Full of Sky’ can quite happily caper into the thoughts of a nine year old, I feel the third novel is more suitable for slightly older children. Do you need to have read the first two ‘Tiffany Aching’ books, yes you do actually, to enjoy the sheer magic of Terry Pratchett's writing as he takes the world we live in, and while making fun of humanity, also allows us to see the sheer wonder. ‘Wintersmith’ is a gorgeous, wickedly funny, dancing delight of a novel and as it joins the first two 'Tiffany Aching Novels', it snugly fits right in.
The latest from this master storyteller and humorist. Having successfully transformed the post office in Going Postal, Moist, Discworld’s most upright reformed criminal, is put in charge of the Mint, and the usual mayhem ensues. I defy anyone not to find Pratchett funny. Whether you are a newcomer or a hardened fan, the Discworld is one of literature’s most enjoyable places and this latest novel is true to form; delightful and funny.
Terry Pratchett is not only a great writer of comic fantasy but a brilliant satirist of our age. In this novel he explores race relations between the Trolls and Dwarfs of Ankh- Morpork, two groups that can never see eye to eye. The parallels to our present troubles are mistakable. It is a hugely entertaining read, like so much of his work, hilarious on the surface, but with a poignant and socially relevant underlying message. This one features Commander Vomes, once again solving impossible crimes, bringing the city to justice and getting home at exactly six o’clock to read Where’s my Cow?” to his new son. Interestingly the child’s picture book of Where’s my Cow? from the novel has also been written and published and it is stunning, in my mind, an essential purchase alongside this latest Discworld novel. Comparison: Jasper Fforde, Douglas Adams, Robert Rankin.Similar this month: None, but try Stephen Donaldson.
Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 1 April 2010. A writer who had more titles on the BBC’s Big Read Top 100 than any other living author, only Charles Dickens matched him. At the start Pratchett was categorised comic fantasy for he sets his Discworld books in an alternative universe and peoples them with witches, wizards and the like. It is a stage upon which he places his players in situations that enables him to mirror our world and therefore pinpoint its faults, idiosyncratic traits, ludicrous bureaucracy or just plain prejudices, injustices, stupidity and the like, i.e. he has developed into one of the most important satirists writing today. This astute masterpiece tears into the postal service. Truth did the same for the newspaper industry. Monstrous Regiment is one of the best books on war and gender you are likely to come across. He is a man who needs reading. His next Discworld, Thud, comes into hardback at the same time.Comparison: Jasper Fforde, Douglas Adams, Robert Rankin.Similar this month: None but try Haruki Murakami or Stephen Donaldson.
Who would have believed back in 1985 that this first introduction into the madcap Discworld which satirised fantasy novels and introduced us to some fantastic characters would turn into the Discworld series numbering some forty works. If you have wondered where to start in this huge series (which need not be read in order) then start here and read The Light Fantastic straight after it. They are great books. A "Piece of Passion" from the publisher... ‘The very first novel in what turned into the celebrated, magisterial Discworld series, this novel was first published by Corgi in 1985. Although the more recent novels in the series have become more layered, satirical and thoughtful (number thirty-seven, Unseen Academicals, is the most recent) The Colour of Magic must remain one of my all-time favourites, for its soaring inventiveness, sparky parody and madcap humour – and for introducing us in the first place to that flat World so very different from, yet so very like our own. ' Marianne Velmans, Publishing Director at Transworld Books in The Discworld Novels Series: 1. The Colour of Magic 2. The Light Fantastic 3. Equal Rites 4. Mort 5. Sourcery 6. Wyrd Sisters 7. Pyramids 8. Guards! Guards! 9. Eric 10. Moving Pictures 11. Reaper Man 12. Witches Abroad 13. Small Gods 14. Lords and Ladies 15. Men At Arms 16. Soul Music 17. Interesting Times 18. Maskerade 19. Feet of Clay 20. Hogfather 21. Jingo 22. The Last Continent 23. Carpe Jugulum 24. The Fifth Elephant 25. The Truth 26. Thief of Time 27. The Last Hero 28. The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents 29. Night Watch 30. The Wee Free Men 31. Monstrous Regiment 32. A Hat Full of Sky 33. Going Postal 34. Thud! 35. Wintersmith 36. Making Money 37. Unseen Academicals 38. I Shall Wear Midnight 39. Snuff 40. Raising Steam 41. The Shepherd's Crown Serial Reader? Check out our 'Fall in Love With a Book Series' collection to find amazing book series to dive in to.
If ever there was a Discworld novel to introduce new readers to Pratchett’s brilliance, this is it. And don’t worry if you aren’t familiar – try this and then work through the 30+ others.
The first of the Johnny Maxwell trilogy, aimed at younger readers but accessible to all, deals with perceptions of reality, humanity, gender, race and conflict in Pratchett's famously light and witty style. Set against the first Gulf War and the break-up of his parents, young Johnny's world is shaken when the alien invaders from his computer game ask him to save them from the humans. Pratchett's deeply clever humour makes difficult subjects understandable, action sequences compelling and characters charmingly human, whatever their species. One of my all time favourite books. Comparison: John Connolly (Gates of Hell), James Patterson (Maximum Ride); Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl). Only You Can Save Mankind - The Musical. Only You Can Save Mankind the musical premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2004, receiving stunning reviews, amongst them Charles Spencer of the Daily Telegraph who said "the songs are excellent - witty - melodic and with a couple of soaring power ballads that are deeply affecting. This is clearly a show with a future." Only You Can Save Mankind - The Album. This release of the overture and five songs is the prelude to that future for a show now gathering the investment for a national tour. The recorded songs have a selecton of voices from the West End, Daniel Boys and Sharon D Clarke amongst them. Available now to download on i-tunes or to pre-order a CD, go to www.ifnotyouthenwho.com.
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Eric calls up a demon to grant him three wishes - but what he gets is the Discworld's most incompetent wizard...Eric is the Discworld's only demonology hacker. The trouble is, he's not very good at it. All he wants is the usual three wishes: to be immortal, rule the world and have the most beautiful woman fall madly in love with him. The usual stuff.But what he gets is Rincewind, the Disc's most incompetent wizard, and Rincewind's Luggage (the world's most dangerous travel accessory) into the bargain.Terry Pratchett's hilarious take on the Faust legend stars many of the Discworld's most popular characters in an outrageous adventure that will leave Eric wishing once more - this time, quite fervently, that he'd never been born.
'Funny, delightfully inventive, and refuses to lie down in its genre' Observer The Discworld is very much like our own - if our own were to consist of a flat planet balanced on the back of four elephants which stand on the back of a giant turtle, that is . . . ___________________ There is a curse. They say: may you live in interesting times. 'May you live in interesting times' is the worst thing one can wish on a citizen of Discworld, especially on the distinctly unmagical Rincewind, who has had far too much perilous excitement in his life and can't even spell wizard. So when a request for a ;Great Wizzard; arrives in Ankh-Morpork via carrier albatross from the faraway Counterweight Continent, it's the endlessly unlucky Rincewind who's sent as emissary. The oldest (and most heavily fortified) empire on the Disc is in turmoil, and Chaos is building. And, for some incomprehensible reason, someone believes Rincewind will have a mythic role in the ensuing war and wholesale bloodletting. There are too many heroes already in the world, but there is only one Rincewind. And he owes it to the world to keep that one alive for as long as possible. ____________________ The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Interesting Times is the fifth book in the Wizards series.
'What shall we do?' said Twoflower. 'Panic?' said Rincewind hopefully. He always held that panic was the best means of survival. When the very fabric of time and space are about to be put through the wringer - in this instance by the imminent arrival of a very large and determinedly oncoming meteorite - circumstances require a very particular type of hero. Sadly what the situation does not need is a singularly inept wizard, still recovering from the trauma of falling off the edge of the world. Equally it does not need one well-meaning tourist and his luggage which has a mind of its own. Which is a shame because that's all there is...
Twoflower was a tourist, the first ever seen on the Discworld. Tourist, Rincewind decided, meant idiot. Somewhere on the frontier between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a parallel time and place which might sound and smell very much like our own, but which looks completely different. It plays by different rules. Certainly it refuses to succumb to the quaint notion that universes are ruled by pure logic and the harmony of numbers. But just because the Disc is different doesn't mean that some things don't stay the same. Its very existence is about to be threatened by a strange new blight: the arrival of the first tourist, upon whose survival rests the peace and prosperity of the land. But if the person charged with maintaining that survival in the face of robbers, mercenaries and, well, Death is a spectacularly inept wizard, a little logic might turn out to be a very good idea... The Colour of Magic is the first novel in Terry Pratchett's acclaimed Discworld series, of which some 20 million copies have been sold. This special hardcover edition is reissued to commemorate the twenty-first anniversary of its first publication by Colin Smythe Limited in 1983. Since then the Discworld has spawned a further thirty-one titles and become one of the most popular and celebrated sequences in English literature.
'May well be considered his masterpiece . . . Humour such as his is an endangered species' The Times The Discworld is very much like our own - if our own were to consist of a flat planet balanced on the back of four elephants which stand on the back of a giant turtle, that is . . . All this books and stuff, that isn't what it should all be about. What we need is real wizardry. Once there was an eighth son of an eighth son, a wizard squared, a source of magic. A Sourcerer. Unseen University, the most magical establishment on the Discworld, has finally got its wish: the emergence of a wizard more powerful than they've ever seen. You'd think the smartest men on the Disc would have been a little more careful what they wished for. As the drastic consequences of sourcery begin to unfold, one wizard holds the solution in his cowardly, incompetent hands. Rincewind must take the University's most precious artefact, the very embodiment of magic itself, and deliver it halfway across the disc to safety . . . If he doesn't make it, the death of all wizardry is at hand. And the end of the world, depending who you listen to. _________________ The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Sourcery is the third book in the Wizards series.
Football has come to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork - not the old fashioned, grubby pushing and shoving, but the new, fast football with pointy hats for goalposts and balls that go gloing when you drop them. And now, the wizards of Unseen University must win a football match, without using magic, so they're in the mood for trying everything else. The prospect of the Big Match draws in a street urchin with a wonderful talent for kicking a tin can, a maker of jolly good pies, a dim but beautiful young woman, who might just turn out to be the greatest fashion model there has ever been, and the mysterious Mr Nutt (and no one knows anything much about Mr Nutt, not even Mr Nutt, which worries him, too). As the match approaches, four lives are entangled and changed for ever. Because the thing about football - the important thing about football - is that it is not just about football. Here we go! Here we go! Here we go!
A limited edition in a beautiful slipcase, signed by Terry Pratchett's artist of choice, Paul Kidby. 'A sequence of unalloyed delight' The Guardian This is where the dragons went. They lie . . . not dead, not asleep, but . . . dormant. And although the space they occupy isn't like normal space, nevertheless they are packed in tightly. They could put you in mind of a can of sardines, if you thought sardines were huge and scaly. And presumably, somewhere, there's a key to let them out. Captain Sam Vimes of the Night Watch is going to have a doozy of a night when they are. This edition is signed by and features ten glorious full-colour illustrations and further pencil drawings by Terry Pratchett's artist of choice, Paul Kidby. This edition is slipcased, has sprayed edges and includes a marker ribbon. 'One of Pratchett's best books. Hilarious and highly recommended' The Times
'A sequence of unalloyed delight' The Guardian This is where the dragons went. They lie . . . not dead, not asleep, but . . . dormant. And although the space they occupy isn't like normal space, nevertheless they are packed in tightly. They could put you in mind of a can of sardines, if you thought sardines were huge and scaly. And presumably, somewhere, there's a key to let them out. Captain Sam Vimes of the Night Watch is going to have a doozy of a night when they are. This edition features ten glorious full-colour illustrations and further pencil drawings by Terry Pratchett's artist of choice, Paul Kidby. 'One of Pratchett's best books. Hilarious and highly recommended' The Times
Containing material unavailable for twenty years -- this is a comprehensive guide to the capital city of Terry Pratchett's Discworld, getting to the heart of Ankh-Morpork's secrets, societies and guilds. Ankh-Morpork is a bottomless pit of secrets. It's time to unearth a few more . . . In the second volume of this confidential guide, brave travellers are made privy to the inner workings of more illustrious Ankh-Morpork societies. Disabuse yourself of notions of professionalism under which you may hold the City Watch; discover what serious business is undertaken by the Fools' Guild (joking is no laughing matter); and, should you be lucky, achieve true enlightenment through the teachings of Lu-Tze. One thing's for sure: after you've read this book, Ankh-Morpork's Guilds are going to need to come up with new ways of doing things. Completely revamped and redesigned, this full-colour book contains material from Discworld Diaries across the decades.
A brand new collection of short stories from the incredible Sir Terry Pratchett. *This deluxe collector's edition comes in a beautiful slipcase, and includes an extra short story (the brilliant tale of 'The Bed Scratcher!'), an exclusive colour print . . . and an unique number assigned to your book!!* Imagination is an amazing thing. It can take you to the top of the highest mountain, or down to the bottom of the deepest depths of the sea. This is where it took Doggins on his Awfully Big Adventure: a quest full of magic and flying machines. (And the world's best joke - trust me, it's hilarious.) It took three young inventors to the moon (where they may or may not have left a bottle of lemonade) and a caveman on a trip to the dentist. You can join them on these adventures, and many more, in this incredible collection of stories . . . From the greatest imagination there ever was. Written for local newspapers when Terry Pratchett was a young lad, these never previously published stories are packed full of anarchic humour and wonderful wit. A must-have for Terry fans . . . and young readers looking for a fix of magic.
Brought to you by Penguin. *A brand new collection of short stories from the incredible Sir Terry Pratchett!* Imagination is an amazing thing. It can take you to the top of the highest mountain, or down to the bottom of the deepest depths of the sea. This where it took Doggins on his Awfully Big Adventure: a quest full of magic and flying machines. (And the world's best joke - trust me, it's hilarious.) It took three young inventors to the moon (where they may or may not have left a bottle of lemonade) and a caveman on a trip to the dentist. You can join them on these adventures, and many more, in this incredible collection of stories . . . From the greatest imagination there ever was. Written for local newspapers when Terry Pratchett was a young lad, these never previously published stories are packed full of anarchic humour and wonderful wit. A must-have for Terry fans . . . and young readers looking for a fix of magic. (c) Terry Pratchett 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020
*A brand new collection of short stories from the incredible Sir Terry Pratchett!* Imagination is an amazing thing. It can take you to the top of the highest mountain, or down to the bottom of the deepest depths of the sea. This is where it took Doggins on his Awfully Big Adventure: a quest full of magic and flying machines. (And the world's best joke - trust me, it's hilarious.) It took three young inventors to the moon (where they may or may not have left a bottle of lemonade) and a caveman on a trip to the dentist. You can join them on these adventures, and many more, in this incredible collection of stories . . . From the greatest imagination there ever was. Written for local newspapers when Terry Pratchett was a young lad, these never previously published stories are packed full of anarchic humour and wonderful wit. A must-have for Terry fans . . . and young readers looking for a fix of magic.
In a city like Ankh-Morpork, where Assassins assassinate, thieves thieve and seamstresses, um . . . don't, Law and Order can be a complicated business. Thankfully His Grace, His Excellency, The Duke of Ankh, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes (Blackboard Monitor) and the Ankh-Morpork City Watch are here to keep the peace. The finest body of men, women, dwarfs, trolls, werewolves, golems, igors, gnomes, feegles, vampires (and whatever Nobby Nobbs is) on the face of the Discworld! The Ankh-Morpork City Watch Journal provides jotting space for your notes, reports, observations and investigations, so kick back, relax and take down your particulars. To help you keep on the straight and narrow, you'll be aided and abetted by some choice quotes from Terry Pratchett's seminal City Watch novels.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse. And Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe. There are many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible than murder. He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches, occasionally snookered and out of his mind, but never out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a finding, there must be a chase and there must be a punishment. They say that in the end all sins are forgiven. But not quite all...
To the consternation of the patrician, Lord Vetinari, a new invention has arrived in Ankh-Morpork - a great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power of all of the elements: earth, air, fire and water. This being Ankh-Morpork, it's soon drawing astonished crowds, some of whom caught the zeitgeist early and arrive armed with notepads and very sensible rainwear. Moist von Lipwig is not a man who enjoys hard work - as master of the Post Office, the Mint and the Royal Bank his input is, of course, vital . . . but largely dependent on words, which are fortunately not very heavy and don't always need greasing. However, he does enjoy being alive, which makes a new job offer from Vetinari hard to refuse . . . Steam is rising over Discworld, driven by Mister Simnel, the man wi' t'flat cap and sliding rule who has an interesting arrangement with the sine and cosine. Moist will have to grapple with gallons of grease, goblins, a fat controller with a history of throwing employees down the stairs and some very angry dwarfs if he's going to stop it all going off the rails . . .
Containing material unavailable for twenty years -- this is a comprehensive guide to the capital city of Terry Pratchett's Discworld, getting to the heart of Ankh-Morpork's secrets, societies and guilds. Think you know Ankh-Morpork? Think again. In this top-secret guide, intrepid explorers will experience the real city. If you've ever wondered where Unseen University students wet their whistles (while avoiding their teachers as they do the same), or pondered just what the Assassins' Guild constitutes a proper means of inhumation - there are standards to be upheld - this is the book for you. That's right, have yourself a glimpse of what actually goes on in the city's societies. Cut the chaff, peek behind the curtain, see how the sausage gets made . . . err, you get the idea. Just don't let the Thieves' Guild catch you with this. They won't appreciate their methods being flogged behind their back. Flogging's their job. Completely revamped and redesigned, this full-colour book contains material from Discworld Diaries across the decades.
