Wossname -- May 2015 -- 2nd edition (Glorious 25th)

[News and reviews about the works of Sir Terry Pratchett]

Wossname
Newsletter of the Klatchian Foreign Legion
May 2015 (Volume 18, Issue 5, Post 2)

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WOSSNAME is a free publication offering news, reviews, and all the other 
stuff-that-fits pertaining to the works and activities of Sir Terry 
Pratchett. Originally founded by the late, great Joe Schaumburger for 
members of the worldwide Klatchian Foreign Legion and its affiliates, 
including the North American Discworld Society and other continental 
groups, Wossname is now for Discworld and Pratchett fans everywhere in 
Roundworld.

GNU Terry Pratchett: Sending Home, forever (and secreted in Wossname's 
own server)
Never forget: http://www.gnuterrypratchett.com/

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Editor in Chief: Annie Mac
News Editor: Vera P
Newshounds: Mogg, Sir J of Croydon Below, the Shadow, Wolfiekins
Staff Writers: Asti, Pitt the Elder, Evil Steven Dread, Mrs Wynn-Jones
Staff Technomancers: Jason Parlevliet, Archchancellor Neil, DJ Helpful
Book Reviews: Annie Mac, Drusilla D'Afanguin, Your Name Here
Puzzle Editor: Tiff (still out there somewhere)
Bard in Residence: Weird Alice Lancrevic
Emergency Staff: Steven D'Aprano, Jason Parlevliet
World Membership Director: Steven D'Aprano (in his copious spare time)

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INDEX:

01) MORE QUOTES OF THE MONTH
02) EDITOR'S LETTER
03) ODDS AND SODS
04) PAUL KIDBY NEWS
05) DISCWORLD PLAYS NEWS AND UPDATES
06) DISCWORLD ARTS AND CRAFTS NEWS
07) DISCWORLD MEETING GROUPS UPDATES AND REMINDERS
08) ROUNDWORLD TALES:
09) AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE
10) MORE IMAGES OF THE MONTH
11) CLOSE

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01) MORE QUOTES OF THE MONTH

"When it comes to inventing characters, don't base a character on 
someone you know. But it may be a good idea to base the character on a 
type of character that you know, because lots of other people will know 
people like that. And if they know people like that, then half the work 
has been done for you."
– The Author, interviewed in April 2000

"We have lost a great man, but what he has left us is staggering."
– blogger Richard Cooper

"Print books were never going to be dead. That was coming from 
businesses that are selling e-readers. As new ways to read come into the 
market, people will use those too. It doesn't mean the death of the book 
or bookshop."
– Joel Becker, CEO of the Australian Booksellers Association

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02) A LETTER FROM YOUR EDITOR

The Glorious 25th is upon us! It would appear that since the death of 
our beloved Author, the Ankh-Morpork remembrance date from the events of 
Night Watch is becoming the general Terry Pratchett Day of Remembrance – 
and indeed why not. Pratchett fans around the world will be wearing 
lilac sprigs, or lilac badges, or lilac brooches, and for the many who 
also honour the late Douglas Adams on this same day ("Towel Day"), 
wearing or carrying lilac-coloured towels. Of course none of us were 
there at the Republic of Treacle Mine Road barricades, but it's the 
spirit that matters. So on this coming Monday, the Glorious 25th, do 
take a few minutes to quietly salute the heroes of the Glorious 
Revolution of Ankh-Morpork and most of all to salute their creator. Or 
celebrate the day noisily. Or toast them with a glass of lilac liqueur – 
er, you did remember to start brewing some a few weeks ago, didn't you? 
Oh well, if not, set this recipe aside until next March:

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Lilac-Liqueur

*

You really, really do want to read the interview featured in item 3.4c. 
It's wide-ranging, it's intelligent, and it's full of glimpses into the 
thought processes of The Author at length. And it has banananana dakrys 
in it!

*

Remember, it's still possible to buy a copy of Backspindle Games' famous 
"Guards! Guards!" board game before the licence – and supply – run out: 
http://www.guardsguards.com – and you can also now pre-order Clacks:

http://backspindlegames.com/clacks/

*

By the way, the third quote in item 1 comes from an article about the 
sort of bookshop Aziraphale and the Librarian would certainly approve 
of, Kay Craddock's Antiquarian Booksellers in Melbourne city centre, 
which has been selling and cherishing beautiful books for a 
half-century. Here be a fascinating article about a fascinating shop:

"Stepping into the sunken bookshop in the neo-gothic Assembly Hall as 
regular customer Barry Humphries does, the theatrical bibliophile stands 
atop the stairs, inhales the air and declares: 'Kay, I'm back.' Just as 
the motorcar didn't kill the bicycle and film didn't kill radio, the 
e-book hasn't eliminated books or bookshops. Up to 1000 retailers 
nationwide have fought off the threat of the internet and e-readers with 
Nielsen BookScan​ data showing national book sales rose 2.3 per cent in 
2014..."

http://bit.ly/1IQv0L7

And now, on with the show. Get those lilacs ready!

– Annie Mac, Editor

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03) ODDS AND SODS

3.1 SIR PTERRY: CLOSER TO THE EDGE...

 From The Register, with the sub-headline "Reader acronym poll firmly 
backs the late and great Sir Terry":

"Our search for a suitably snappy title for our forthcoming final Low 
Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) test flight has ended agreeably 
with a reader poll coming down firmly in support of PRATCHETT. Alex 
Carlton's "Planes Reactive Airborne Tests Checking Heuristically for 
Extreme Technological Tantrums" ran away with the vote, and his tribute 
to the late and great Discworld author Sir Terry has secured him a brand 
spanking new RockBLOCK Mk2 Iridium satellite comms unit, courtesy of our 
mates at Rock Seven. The PRATCHETT mission will see our US allies at 
Edge Research Laboratory sending a Vulture 2 spaceplane avionics rig 
stratowards, to see both how the kit handles the cold at altitude, and 
to test a hook-up of the 900MHz ultra long range radio rig. We'll bring 
you details closer to the (as yet undecided) date, and in the meantime 
raise the traditional glass or two to Alex Carlton, Rock Seven, all of 
you who participated and, of course, Sir Terry Pratchett."

http://bit.ly/1c8iGHw

About Edge Research:

"The mission of Edge Research Lab is to expand humanity's knowledge of 
the physical world, encourage enthusiasm in STEM education, and practice 
efficient research through the novel application of existing technology 
where possible and the development of new technology where necessary... 
Few things are more rewarding than a good collaboration, and you have a 
chance to experience that by collaborating with us and the international 
team from The Register's Special Projects Bureau to do something truely 
remarkable: launch a rocket-powered spaceplane from a balloon! We've 
tweeted about our involvement with the project before, but now it's 
official – the Kickstarter campaign is live, so you know it's a Real 
Thing (as everything on the internet is), and you can experience the 
rewardingness of collaboration. EDGE will be providing operations and 
logistics support to the mission, and we're thrilled to be working with 
the team that holds the Guinness world record for the highest launch of 
a paper airplane. More information can be found on the Kickstarter 
campaign page (_http://kck.st/1JEQ9XL_)."

3.2 i09's GUIDE TO DISCWORLD

Excellent lengthy analysis/paean by Katharine Trendacosta that does its 
impressive best to explain the appeal and intricacies of the Discworld 
series – and for once, the comments *are* worth reading (in fact, they 
form a vital party of the piece since Ms Trendacosta answers almost 
every commenter). The page also includes a number of vivid "reprints" of 
Discworld illustrations by Kidby, Kirby and Simonetti. Here be some 
extracts from the beginning:

"Pratchett sets up fantasy tropes, and then asks, 'What if the wizard 
was incompetent? What if the heroes were brave morons? What if our 
protagonist never stopped being a complete coward?' But the later 
Discworld books turn into a satire of our reality, rather than just a 
satire of fantasy literature. 'What,' asked Pratchett, 'if fantasy 
worlds had exactly the same problems we do?' The biggest danger to 
Discworld doesn't come from megalomaniacs with a desire to take over the 
world. Rather, it's the little evils lurking in everyone: sexism, 
racism, classism — small-mindedness, in all its forms. And, because of 
that, the saviors don't spring from 'prophecy' or 'chosen ones' — 
rather, salvation comes from common sense, and those who act on it. With 
Discworld, Pratchett's great achievement was to create a universe that 
looked as familiar as Middle Earth, and fill it with people that had 
more in common with recognizable, modern-day people than with Aragorn or 
Frodo...

"Pratchett uses puns, pop culture references, historical in-jokes and 
everything in between to create a world that is rich and ridiculous. He 
deploys footnotes like joke bombs. And, somehow, Discworld remains 
internally consistent. It's satire as pointed as Jonathan Swift and as 
modern as Stephen Colbert. On the Disc, every horrible and absurd thing 
is taken to its extreme end. But Pratchett doesn't stop at highlighting 
things, he also gives us hope. Because these are novels — fantasy 
novels, even — so the good guys do succeed in the end. See, they 
whisper, if they can figure it out, why can't we? If trolls and dwarfs 
can get along, surely we can..."

http://io9.com/the-io9-guide-to-discworld-1698768077

3.3 REMINDER: DISCWORLD WEEKEND AT THE OXFORD STORY MUSEUM

The Mort Weekend is under way!

"The Story Museum are proud to announce the return of Discworld Weekend, 
a celebration of Sir Terry Pratchett's phenomenally successful Discworld 
books. Taking place on the 23rd and 24th May 2015, this year's event is 
themed around the novel Mort, the story of a teenage boy who finds 
himself as Death's apprentice, with both disastrous and hilarious 
consequences. The weekend will see The Story Museum transform with a 
series of specially programmed events and installations including 
readings from Stephen Briggs (voice of the Discworld audiobooks), a talk 
from Discworld super-fan and convention regular Dr Pat Harkin, the 
chance to see Death and his horse Binky saddling up in our stables, a 
special MURDER A CURRY night with Terry's assistant Rob Wilkins as guest 
of honour, and an immersive trip through Death's own library and gardens.

"This year's event is especially poignant – on the 12th April the world 
received with great sadness the news that Sir Terry had died at home, 
with his cat sleeping on his bed, surrounded by his family. The loss of 
such a great writer was felt no less keenly by The Story Museum – Sir 
Terry had been a long term supporter and one of the 26 authors who 
offered his time and image for the museum's highly acclaimed '26 
Characters' exhibition. As well a whole host of Discworld events and 
installations, visitors will also be able to enjoy The Museum's regular 
attractions including Draw Me A Story, Time For Bed and Extreme Reading, 
all of which will be sprinkled with a touch of Discworld magic."

When: Saturday 23rd May – Sunday 24th May 2015
Venue: Story Museum, Rochester House, 42 Pembroke Street, Oxford OX1 1BP 
(phone +44 (0)1865 790050)
Time: 10am – 5pm Tues-Sat (when open); 11am-4pm Sundays (when open)
Tickets: The Discworld Weekend is included with a standard museum entry 
ticket. Single tickets are priced at £7.50 (£5 concessions). Family 
tickets are £20 (4 people including at least 1 child); no charge for 
children under 2 years of age; groups of 10 or over receive 10% off, 
only if they book through The Story Museum (01865 790050). Online 
booking is no longer available, but there may be tickets at the door; 
ring to check first!

http://www.storymuseum.org.uk/whats-on/discworld-weekend/

3.4 ANALYSES AND PAEANS

3.4a "Terry Pratchett Remembered", by Richard Cooper:

"Terry Pratchett had a way of crafting a sentence that was his own. This 
is what makes him a great writer full-stop, not just a great popular 
writer. By the time of books like Small Gods, Jingo, Nation, Monstrous 
Regiment, and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents he was a 
writer incapable of writing a routine sentence... It was a wry, knowing, 
sceptical style, constantly challenging received wisdom, and exploring 
how that received wisdom – sometimes merely stupid, sometimes toxic – 
affected everything from the psychological makeup of his protagonists, 
to the behaviour of people in crowds, to the behaviour of whole 
societies. Granny Weatherwax, Johnny Maxwell and Sam Vimes are 
characters forged from the hammer and anvil collision of what a society 
expects from its witches, children or police and what it actually needs; 
between what stories have led us to expect witches, children and police 
to be capable of and what happens when they affect the lives of real 
human beings... No male novelist ever wrote better female characters. In 
the series spanning from Equal Rites – in which a dying wizard hands on 
his staff to a baby, not realising it is female, and the child grows up, 
with the help of the village witch Granny Weatherwax, determined not to 
let the wizard patriarchy hold her back – to the Tiffany Aching books – 
in which a nine-year-old becomes a witch and learns everything from 
defeating the Queen of the fairies to cheesemaking to puberty – he 
constructed a brilliant feminist panorama, in which complex evils have 
to be fought while a community has to be maintained... In person 
Pratchett was as awesome as you'd expect him to be, every speech full of 
the wit, grace and love of language that reflected Pratchett's love of 
Chesterton, Twain and Wodehouse. The fight he put up against PCA was as 
inspiring as one of Tiffany Aching's battles,and he displayed the same 
poignant determination to bring warmth and humour to darkness..."

http://bit.ly/1c9Vyso

3.4b On Reason.com, Scott Shackton's analysis of the sociopolitics of 
Pratchett:

"In Pratchett's books, both the heroes and the villains tended to be 
people in positions of authority. What separated his heroes — people 
like police commander Samuel Vimes, witch Esme "Granny" Weatherwax, and 
even Patrician Havelock Vetinari, an assassin turned ruler of the 
sprawling city of Ankh-Morpork — from the villains was their insistence 
on letting people live their own lives, whatever may come of it, even 
when they made a mess of things. By contrast, Pratchett's villains, 
whether they were fallen and irrelevant nobles, religious leaders, 
narcissistic elves, or tradition-obsessed dwarves, pursued power for 
themselves while claiming it was for the benefit of all. The ultimate 
villains in Pratchett's books were the 'auditors of reality,' shapeless 
cosmic bureaucrats who hate life because it's so unpredictable. People 
aren't just shaped by the universe. They help reshape the universe, and 
this torments creatures who want nothing more than a permanent form of 
order... Pratchett's works embraced progress and innovation, both in 
technology and in humanity. His book series may have started in what 
appeared to be a typical quasi-medieval fantasy milieu, but it was far 
from static. Over the course of his novels, the Discworld saw the 
invention of the printing press, a form of telegraph, paper currency, 
mail, and in the last book to be published before Pratchett's death, the 
steam engine. But also over the course of his novels, the Discworld also 
saw the development of concepts of liberty, like the free practice of 
religion, freedom of speech and of the press, and the notion that basic 
rights ought to be extended to new races that humanity had treated like 
vermin or property — goblins, orcs, golems, the undead..."

http://bit.ly/1Ft8kgf

3.4c Here be a terrific interview from the not-too-distant past! 
"Writers Write" has republished an extensive interview with Sir Pterry 
by Claire E. White from fifteen years ago. Originally posted on the 
Internet Writing Journal in April 2000, this is a great read. And it 
includes a banananana dakry:

"I don't think anyone gets everything. But I think nearly every one gets 
80% - 90% of the references in the book. But I hope that the things that 
they don't get they don't notice that they're not getting, if you follow 
me. There is a character mentioned in the book, (although he's never 
appeared because he's dead) called Bloody Stupid Johnson, who is the 
opposite of a genius. He is kind of the negative image of Leonardo de 
Vinci. He's built various things which don't work, and they all failed 
to work in a most spectacular way. One of the things he built is the 
Mighty Organ at the Unseen University, which can make the most 
astonishing array of sounds. There is a scene in one of the books where 
one of my characters is at the Ankh-Morpork Opera house. The Opera 
House's organ has been busted and needs some spare parts. So the 
character says, "Well, I've been in touch with the University and it's a 
marvelous thing. It turns out that our organ is a Johnson." Now, no one 
in England is going to get that line, but most Americans probably will. 
But it doesn't actually matter to me that no one in England will, unless 
they've watched a few American movies, because they're not going to 
notice it. Ultimately I put those things in because I think it will be 
fun at that point...

"I have to say that I simply hate it when reviewers call my work 'wacky' 
or 'zany'. Those people are going to be hunted down by the Mafia! 
Seriously, I suppose around the fifth or six Discworld book, I 
discovered the joy of plot. I think it was Esther Friesner who said you 
have to have tragic relief. If a book is nothing but funny, then it is 
nothing but funny. There is no contrast and it's hard to take anything 
seriously. It's hard to worry about the fate of a character. You do need 
those moments when you bring people down to Earth. I think the book 
which generated the most mail and email was Jingo. In Jingo, there was a 
theme of what you might call quantum confusion (and only in fantasy can 
you get away with this kind of thing). Vimes picks up his personal 
organizer just at the moment when the Universe is splitting into two. So 
that is the point where he picks up the personal organizer that belongs 
to the Vimes that makes the decision in a different way, so he gets a 
personal organizer which is effectively telling him what would have been 
happening in his life had he not made a particular decision. There is a 
scene where he's actually seeing (as if it were notes in organizer) all 
his colleagues dying (although in his universe they are around him and 
are alive). There is a war going on and in the section of the organizer 
that says Things To Do Today, the entry says 'die'. This was quite 
chilling to see. These terrible things happened because he made a small 
decision which had a profound effect. Because there was just that moment 
of uncertainty when the two organizers in the two universes could 
interchange and because of that minor decision, he and every one he knew 
died. In fact, he hadn't made that minor decision in this universe, so 
he was alive, but he could hear what would have happened. We don't often 
get that opportunity. Writing those scenes taught me a few things. One 
of the things it taught me is that you should never regret. You should 
never say, 'If only I had taken that job. If only I had not done this or 
I had not done that.' Because you don't know what else would have 
happened. If you had taken that job, yes it would have offered better 
promotions and more money, but if you had been going to work to that job 
on a particular day, you'd have been run over by a bus. You don't know 
what other things would have happened as a result of the decision. So, 
basically, you better just take what comes down the pipe...

"I will say this for the Americans: In England, if you'd ordered a drink 
that was twice the normal size, they'd water it down. But in New 
Orleans, a liter daiquiri has twice as much alcohol as a half liter 
daiquiri. It was so delicious that I had another one. Then I thought I'd 
try a liter of the peach daiquiri, and I had about half of that one. In 
the 1950s comic books, sometimes a character would have a nuclear 
reactor fall on him. Then he'd become 'Mr. Atomic'. I drank so much 
banana daiquiri that night that I think every cell in my body was full 
of banana daiquiri. I became Dr. Daiquiri. I think that's the only way I 
survived. I couldn't feel my upper lip for quite awhile after that, 
though. The point is, if you make a real daiquiri, according to a real 
recipe, you don't feel well again until tea time the next day..."

http://bit.ly/1z6XIgz

3.4d Fantastic analysis of and love-song to Night Watch, by Sam Jordison 
in The Guardian:

"The impression you get of politics from Night Watch is that it's a 
nasty, brutish business best left to nasty, brutish people. Which is to 
say, politicians – who are, of course, the very ones who deserve to 
suffer its cruel consequences. But what I can say is that I'd want to be 
on Terry Pratchett's side. Or at least, the side of Vimes, the leader of 
the titular Night Watch, who always manages to find not only the most 
practical solution to a problem, but the solution that does the least 
harm. As an approach to politics, that takes some beating. He is the 
hero of the book, in all senses of the word – a true star who lights up 
the page, as well as a man to admire and follow. If I sound a little 
smitten with Vimes it's just a mark of Pratchett's magic. Because of 
course this book is more than sharp political commentary. It is, to 
quote AS Byatt again, the work of a 'master storyteller' who can make 
you believe in a man who is accidentally transported back in time and 
has to coach his younger self to become a decent Night Watchman, while 
fomenting a rebellion in which people just go about their daily lives, 
and battling a serial killer who also travelled back in time with him..."

http://bit.ly/1KGU1FM

...and another Sam Jordison piece, about the *real* science of 
Discworld, which includes parts of an interview with co-author Jack Cohen:

"I'm guessing that people will read Terry Pratchett for generations to 
come. Partly for the intrinsic value of the books – because they are so 
funny, so smart and so perceptive. And partly because, surprising as it 
may seem considering they are fantasy novels, there can be few better 
guides to contemporary thinking in the late 20th and early 21st 
centuries... The Discworld, in short, is a good place to discuss 
difficult subjects. It allows for clarity and directness and also – 
because it is fantasy, and because the whole thing is being carried on 
the back of a giant turtle – sharp contrast. A fine example of just how 
well the Discworld works as an idea machine comes in the Science of 
Discworld series co-written by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack 
Cohen. These books explore scientific ideas and tell a Discworld story 
in alternate chapters. The opening premise is that the wizards of Unseen 
University have accidentally created a new universe – one, crazily, that 
seems to run on the laws of physics rather than the more usual dictates 
of magic and narrative. Naturally, the wizards start to poke around in 
this universe, thus setting off the Big Bang and initiating a voyage of 
discovery through our own cosmic laws as they examine Earth, or 'the 
Roundworld', from a fresh perspective. The four books in the series have 
delighted and enlightened hundreds of thousands of readers (myself 
included) since the first one appeared in 1999. The Science of Discworld 
should have been a gift to publishing. But as Jack Cohen told me last 
week, it took a lot of persuasion before any publisher would take it on..."

http://bit.ly/1F1Cbch

3.5 GOOD OMENS T-SHIRT

T-shirt of note – an excellent Good Omens one by pop-culture retailers 
Tee Fury, approved by co-author Neil Gaiman, to raise funds for 
Alzheimer's research. This page includes an interview with the artist, 
Sean Phillips:

"Once in a blue moon, one stumbles upon a work of fiction that reignites 
a lost passion. For me, this was the work of Neil Gaiman and the passion 
was comics. After reading 'Sandman', I found myself re-examining comics 
as a grown-up and versatile format of storytelling that expanded beyond 
the world of capes and tights with which I was already familiar.
Long admired by creative types and fantasy fans alike, the prolific 
author's work has graced not just comics, but novels, movies, and 
children's books. Now, his image graces a Charitee with a TeeFury shirt 
by artist Sean Phillips. In this unique imagining, we see Gaiman 
depicted with the iconic instruments of the angel Aziraphale and the 
demon Crowley from the novel 'Good Omens'..."

http://www.teefury.com/blog/a-good-omen-charitee/

And the t-shirt itself, which is available in men's sizes up to 3XL and 
is priced at $11:

http://www.teefury.com/a-good-omen

3.6 GOING BOINGGG! FOR ALZHEIMER'S AND ORANGUTANS

A fundraising bungee jump in memory of Sir Pterry, to be performed by 
Steven Smith:

"On June 13th we will be taking part in a 160ft bungee jump to raise 
money in memory of Sir Terry Pratchett. We are supporting two great 
causes that he was a patron of. One is the Orangutan Foundation. Bornean 
orangutans are endangered, while their Sumatran siblings are critically 
endangered. The other charity we are supporting is Alzheimer's Research 
UK. This illness needs all the funding it can get to try and find a 
cure. To support us, donate at our JustGiving page: 
https://www.justgiving.com/teams/StevenVanessaBungee

"If you are a UK tax payer be sure to tick the box so the charities can 
claim Gift Aid. You can choose to support either charity, or donate to 
both. We hope to raise at least £125 for each – So far we are at £85 for 
the Orangutans and £115 for Alzheimer's Research, so please help us beat 
these targets!"

3.7 REVIEWS

A lovely review of Where's My Cow? by blogger The Manila Reader aka Kokay:

"My first story as a child was told to me by my father. I was probably 
the same age as Young Sam (in Where's My Cow). I remember the nights, 
inside my parents' room in our small starter home. My father would read 
it to me again, over and over – the tale of how the animals from all 
over the world, walked by pair inside Noah's Ark. To a child's 
imagination, the ark bent space and time, it was infinitely large 
inside! There came the largest elephant, the fiercest lions, the birds, 
the dogs, cats, probably a kangaroo hopped inside too, but at the age of 
one, the only exotic animal I could fit inside it were ducks and rats... 
It was one of the highlights of my childhood. We didn't have any other 
book in the house, not until the alphabet books came (which is not the 
same).

"These days, parents would leave their children as early as one year old 
in front of the tv so they could get on with their house duties. But 
there's something heroic about parents reading to their children. Try it 
moms and dads, it's worth it. I know it was! I remember my father, 
patient man that he is, reading Noah's ark many times in one night. My 
mother was probably relieved that I was nagging someone else during 
bedtime... Noah's Ark must have been a big hit for a child of one, but 
it could be trying to fathers (and mothers) all over the world. So, 
Terry Pratchett, being a genius (as this site attest to the many books 
I've reviewed) released a truly interactive approach to the usual animal 
bedtime story with a twist in Where's My Cow? It is a plus if your 
household loves the Discworld series and is familiar with one of its 
heroes – Sir Samuel Vimes, Knight, Duke and Commander of Discworld's 
fictional police force. In Where's My Cow, Sam Vimes must always come 
home at six o'clock. No crime is too big, no VIP so important and no 
mortal peril so dangerous for him not to read to Young Sam at six 
sharp... Sam Vimes and Young Sam reads this short but charming tale of 
farm animals baa-ing, neighing, oink-ing and when Sam Vimes got 
impatient, he added a chorus of city creatures with hilarious results. 
Parents are expected to read the animal noises accurately and with 
choreography! All in all I think for a 38-page book, it is worth having 
for the price of endless hours of entertainment not only for the child 
but also the adult who reads it..."

http://bit.ly/1IQJCdx

In The Guardian, a review we may have missed – Unseen Academicals, by 
author Harry Ritchie:

"The secret of Terry Pratchett's comic fantasy isn't so much the 
wackiness of the fantasy as the reliability of the comedy. The very 
least you get in any of these 400 pages is amiable, agreeable 
chuntering, and there is an instructively regular provision of terrific 
lines: the atmosphere in the Uncommon Room is 'as cold as meltwater', 
Archchancellor Ridcully is astonished at noticing the intelligence in a 
servant's expression and thinks that 'it was as if a chicken had 
winked', a lingering kiss from the luscious Juliet sounds like 'a tennis 
ball being sucked through the strings of a racket'. There's equally 
effective quality control of the comic riffs – as when Stibbons replies 
with exhaustive honesty when Ridcully asks what the wizards need to 
learn about football – and of the jokes, such as Dr Hix's evil plan 'to 
spread darkness and despondency throughout the world by the means of 
amateur dramatics', or the second verse of the Ankh-Morpork national 
anthem, which consists mainly of ner-ner-ners interspersed with 
occasional coherent words, because that's all anyone would remember of a 
second verse..."

http://bit.ly/1Q2ypW3

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04) PAUL KIDBY NEWS

4.1 KIDBY'S DISCWORLD BARON UPDATE

"A life-sized fibreglass sculpture with the face of Sir Terry Pratchett 
decorated by long-time Discworld collaborator Paul Kidby is to go on 
display... Up to 25 statues of medieval barons, decorated by local 
artists, will be placed around Salisbury from 12 June. Illustrator Mr 
Kidby said the statue was a "tribute to Terry's writing". The fantasy 
artist, who illustrated a number of Discworld publications, said his 
baron did not sport Sir Terry's trademark hat and glasses. "It has a 
beard so I'm making mine look as much like Terry as I can," he said. 
"He's got a shield with Terry's Discworld on it, a helmet with a famous 
Discworld motto, and on his back he has a cloak made up of about 70 of 
his most famous characters. Its[sic] always nice to remind people of the 
books that Terry wrote and I'm hoping lots of people will come and see 
it and enjoy it." The statue will form part of an art trail of 5ft 
(1.5m)-tall sculptures in Salisbury to mark the 800th anniversary of the 
Magna Carta.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-32717745

 From the Bath Chronicle:

"The sculpture took Paul and his team around 300 hours to complete will 
go on show in June for the whole summer alongside 24 others, before it 
is auctioned in September. Paul said: "I hope Terry would like it. It is 
created as a tribute to Terry and it seemed to make sense to do make a 
piece of public art as a tribute to Terry. The face is a bit like Terry 
and I did try to make it more like him, but of course he is famous for 
his fedora hat and his glasses, and when you are given a 3D canvas to 
work with, it is difficult. I am just putting the finishing touches to 
him and I hope to have him down by the end of the week. It's lovely to 
be involved in something like this, to brighten up the streets and bring 
people in.'... Paul's designs have been on the sleeve covers of Sir 
Terry's Discworld books since 2001. He took delivery of his 5ft baron in 
February, and it has been sitting in his conservatory, where he started 
working on it three weeks ago. 'He's got a shield with Terry's Discworld 
on it, a helmet with a famous Discworld motto, and on his back he has a 
cloak made up of about 70 of his most famous characters,' said Paul. 
'It's always nice to remind people of the books that Terry wrote and I'm 
hoping lots of people will come and see it and enjoy it.'

The trail will run from 12 June until 6 September.

http://bit.ly/1Fr7v7x

And here is Mr Kidby with his finished Discworld baron. Note the writing 
on the helmet!

http://bit.ly/1EFYzYh


4.2 DISCWORLD AND BEYOND EXHIBIT MOVES TO LUTON

The Discworld & Beyond touring exhibition will be at Wardown Park 
Museum, Wardown Park, Old Bedford Road, Luton, LU2 7HA (Tel. 01582 
546722) from 25th July–1st November 2015. Entry is free!

"'Discworld & Beyond' features interesting and colourful artwork created 
by Paul Kidby for Sir Terry Pratchett's popular comic fantasy series as 
well as a range of work from his own projects, including the recently 
published book 'The Charmed Realm'. Drawings, oil paintings and 
watercolours will be on display."

http://bit.ly/1LnVfWN

http://bit.ly/1SfgfUV

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

05) DISCWORLD PLAYS NEWS AND UPDATES

5.1 CARPE JUGULUM IN THE LAND OF FOG

Wellington Repertory Theatre presents Terry Pratchett's Carpe Jugulum 
adapted for the stage by Stephen Briggs and directed by Ross Miller.

When: Wednesday 27th May to Saturday 6th June (excluding Monday 1st June)
Venue: Gryphon Theatre, Ghuznee Street, Wellington.
Time: 8pm all dates except 31st May (3pm) and 2nd and 3rd June (6.30pm)
Tickets: adults $25, concession $20, $18 for pre-paid groups of 10 or 
more.
To book, email bookings at wellingtonrepertory.org.nz, or ring 479 3393.

http://www.wellingtonrepertory.org.nz/

5.2 REMINDER: WYRD SISTERS IN BRIGHTON (MAY)

The Brighton University Drama Society, who presented their first 
Discworld play (Mort) in 2012, are back with their production of Wyrd 
Sisters, this time for the Brighton Fringe Festival. "In this unusual 
retelling of Macbeth, let BUDS take you on the back of the Great A'Tuin 
and bring you on an adventure to save a kingdom with three rather 
different witches." A percentage of proceeds will be going to The 
Research Institute for the Care of Older People (RICE) in honour of the 
late author.

When: 28th – 30th May 2015
Venue: Brighthelm Church & Community Centre, North Road, Brighton, East 
Sussex BN1 1YD
Time:  All shows 7.30pm (show runs for 2 hours 30 minutes)
Tickets: £7 (£5 concessions) For online booking, go to:
http://boxoffice.brightonfringe.org/theatre/9181/wyrd-sisters

5.3 REMINDER: SMALL GODS IN ADELAIDE, FOURECKS (MAY)

Unseen Theatre's production of Small Gods is up and running!

When: Season continues Wednesday to Saturday through 30th May.
Venue: Bakehouse Theatre, 255 Angas Street, Adelaide
Time: All shows at 8pm
Tickets: Adults $20; Concession $18; TREv $16; Groups (10+) $16; Preview 
all tickets $15; Companion Card accepted.
To book online, go to: www.bakehousetheatre.com
Tickets can also be purchased at the door on the night (subject to 
availability).

http://unseen.com.au/

5.4 REMINDER: CARPE JUGULUM IN POTSDAM, BRANDENBURG (JUNE)

The English Drama Group will present their production of Carpe Jugulum 
in June.

When: 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 16th, 19th and 24th June 2015 (also 29th June 
at different venue; see below)
Venue: Potsdam University canteen, first floor, New Palais (Neues 
Palais) campus (4th through 24th); Hans Otto Theatre, Potsdam (29th)
Time: 6:30pm all campus shows; 7.30pm at Hans Otto theatre
Tickets: €5 (discount tickets €3)

http://edg-potsdam.jimdo.com/
http://www.facebook.com/EDGpotsdam
http://www.hansottotheater.de/ (not listed yet)

5.5 SMALL GODS IN ADELAIDE: RAVE REVIEWS!

By Stephen Davenport for InDaily:

"Sir Terry Pratchett may be gone but he is not forgotten. His satire is 
rip-roaring and, to borrow one of the fantasy author's own quotes, his 
'words are the litmus paper of the mind'. Small Gods confirms, yet 
again, Adelaide-based Unseen Theatre Company's status as an accomplished 
and engaging presenter of Pratchett's Discworld series of novels. 
Director Pamela Munt and her ensemble have taken the author's thirteenth 
book and transformed it into something remarkable and compulsively 
enjoyable, creating the multi-layered society of the Disc in an 
enchanting, colourful fantasy adventure with a satirical bite... Munt 
has a great understanding of Discworld and Pratchett's swipe at religion 
and intolerance, and as a result she has created a solid production. 
This is probably close to what Sir Terry had in his mind when he wrote 
the book. The director allows the saga to sweep along on a wave of 
politics, battles, plots, passion and flights of fantasy. Her admirable 
cast whizzes along, too, with a goodly amount of gusto, talent and fun..."

http://bit.ly/1IN3VH5

By Louise Miller-Frost for Adelaide Theatre Guide:

"As the only person actually hearing the genuine voice of Om, Brutha is 
an observer and reluctant participant in the machinations of the church 
hierarchy as they cynically jockey for position and power. Alycia Rabig 
does an excellent portrayal of the impotent and self-absorbed Om, 
increasingly isolated from anything to do with holy practices and 
seemingly amused by the false holy documents produced in her name. 
Adeodatus McCormack is the evil Deacon Vorbis, and his cynicism and the 
pleasure he derives from casual cruelty adequately display how an evil 
leader is able to rout an ostensibly good organisation... The wit and 
satire in this adaptation and in the original novel make what could have 
been a heavy story into an entertaining evening. The sparse set and 
props worked well with set changes occurring smoothly as the action 
continued on-stage. Costuming is effective and with the exception of a 
period at the beginning when harsh overhead lighting indicating a 
narrative section made it quite difficult for the audience to watch, 
this was a masterful performance..."

http://bit.ly/1KgtSAW

By Christine Pyman on Broadway World:

"Unseen Theatre Company takes this on with their usual enthusiasm and 
energy, resulting in a production that will stay with the audience for a 
long time, I suspect... Tedmanson [Brutha] had the lion's share of the 
lines in this play, and carried out his role with a sensitivity that 
generated audience compassion for his character. Along the way, we get 
to meet Deacon Vorbis, played with relish and evil delight by Adeodatus 
McCormack, who showed some of the depths that organised religions have 
gone to, and the sort of power-hungry men who have been drawn to their 
respective churches, to make their views the only acceptable version of 
reality for everyone. In true Pratchett fashion, we find ourselves 
laughing whilst starting to gasp with horror, both at what we are 
witnessing and the realisations of the truths behind it all, and horror 
that we are actually laughing at it. On the opposite side of the 
religious discussion, are the Ephebians, led by their Tyrant, played by 
the amazingly and exotically bedecked Sally Peck who, ironically enough, 
is the embodiment of religious freedom. There are also the local 
philosophers, led by Didactylos who, with a broad Australian accent, was 
the personification of Didacticism, to everyone's enjoyment. Other 
characters who helped carry the story were the wise and self-effacing 
monk Lu-Tze, played by the Lu-Tze-like, apart possibly from the 
self-effacing part, Phillip Lineton, and there is Tony Power in the 
multiple roles of a memorable Brother Nhumrod, Sergeant Simony, and one 
of the guards, as well as David Haller, as some comic relief in his own 
right, plus more multiple roles played by Tony Cockington and Aimee 
Ford, and a cameo by the experienced DEATH, Hugh O'Connor..."

http://bit.ly/1Lazl9p

By Henry Rodriguez on TREv:

"The novel is definitely one of Pratchett's more difficult to translate 
onto stage; there is a lot of tortoise and a large part of both the 
story and humour is provided by narration. Despite this 
director/producer/actor Pamela Munt has managed to condense the story 
into a play for the Unseen Theatre Company that hits all the plot points 
and doesn't lose any of the comedy... Reliance on narration by the added 
character Footnote was at times heavy handed and occasionally broke the 
pace of the action. Nonetheless, newcomers to Pratchett's Discworld, 
after some initial reorientation, should have no trouble falling into 
the tale of a small tortoise and her apostle Brutha (charmingly played 
by Timothy Tedmanson). The other potential staging difficulty – Om 
herself – proved no obstacle. Having a (human) member of the cast with 
tortoise in hand representing all the emotion and dialogue of the god 
was definitely the next best thing to having a real telepathic tortoise. 
The interesting choice to cast Om as a woman also worked well and added 
a new layer of satire. Alycia Rabig wonderfully portrayed the comic 
frustration you would expect from a god with an inferiority complex.Head 
Exquisitor Vorbis and associates were given a distinctly Spanish 
Inquisition vibe... I found it easy to delight in the productions 
devoted attention to detail, such as a tortoiseshell patterned floor 
(the turtle moves!) and a cameo from a wonderfully mellifluous Death. 
The Unseen Theatre Company's Small Gods is a fitting homage to the late 
great author himself..."

http://trev.org.au/index.php?PID=1423

By Peter Maddern on Kryztoff:

"As always, Munt's working of the book and direction keeps the story 
flowing, never leaving her audience to ponder for long any of the long 
bows of logic or pointed barbs embedded in the script; not bad for a 
show that runs nearly two hours. Michelle Whichello's costume work also 
needs some recognition with praise (from me at least) for decking out 
Vorbis and his henchmen as facsimile copies of Monty Python's Spanish 
Inquisition team, including, did I think I noticed, Cardinal Biggles in 
one of the scenes. Note must also be made of High O'Connor who again 
appeared, as it seems he always does, as DEATH – well done for sitting 
around til 10pm to have your five lines in the sun..."

http://www.kryztoff.com/RAW/

...and an uncredited, unlinked rave review from the mysterious Encore:

"The UTC leaps fearlessly into the adaptation of a much loved novel by a 
much loved author. And as we know it's not for the first time. In fact 
it's for the twenty-eighth time, so they must be getting something 
right. Thing is, they're getting lots of things right. Staging, 
lighting, sound, acting, directing. Even the venue, to which this was my 
first visit, is suitably quirky. Adapted, Directed and Produced by 
Pamela Munt who has found an unusual place for a comfort zone and is 
patently a proper Pratchett fan, unable, I would suggest, to resist a 
little part for herself.

"The whole is a marvellous ensemble production, with great individual 
performances. Alycia Rabig warms into her role as Om as the play 
progresses. I believe Adeodatus McCormack is your man if ever you need a 
smug, supercilious expression in an actor. (but you can come out of 
character for the bow Ade!) Harold Roberts commands attention with 
shades of Paul Hogan. And Timothy Tedmanson, seldom off stage in this 
show, shows himself an acting force to be reckoned with. Definitely one 
to watch. Philip Lineton shows the young upstarts how this acting 
malarkey should be done.

"We're lucky to have the likes of Pamela and her band of Merry Geeks in 
Adelaide. In the quirky world of theatre they are the uber-quirky, but 
the whole is done with love, and it shows."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

06) DISCWORLD ARTS AND CRAFTS NEWS

The latest from the Cunning Artificers of Discworld Emporium is a timely 
selection:

"'How do they rise up, rise up, rise up, rise up, how do they rise up, 
rise up high?' The Glorious 25th is nearly upon us, and the Ankh-Morpork 
Post Office has paid tribute to the People's Republic of Treacle Mine 
Road with a host of commemorative offerings... On sale Monday 25th May, 
the Treacle Mine Road 'Little Brown Envelope' contains a new 3p issue 
from the 'Historic Ankh-Morpork' series featuring Treacle Mine Watch 
House, and a special limited edition $1 Keel stamp... The $1 Keel issue 
is a special Glorious 25th version of our $1 Vimes issue by guest artist 
Bill Sanderson and is otherwise only available as a limited edition 
sheet until the end of June (while stocks last), while the Watch House 
3p joins our standard issues and is available to own singly or as whole 
sheets...

"The latest edition of our Little Brown Envelope, commemorates the 
People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road and the boys from the barricade. 
Containing an assortment of Discworld Stamps with new issues from the 
Ankh-Morpork Post Office paying homage to Terry Pratchett's Night Watch. 
Each envelope in this edition includes a new 3p issue from the 'Historic 
Ankh-Morpork' series featuring Treacle Mine Watch House, and a limited 
edition 25p Keel stamp – a special Glorious 25th version of our $1 Vimes 
issue by guest artist Bill Sanderson – otherwise only available as a 
limited edition sheet until the end of June (while stocks last). A 
generous amount of sports, $5 Blue Triangle and other rarities have also 
been sprinkled throughout the edition. (please note that there is NO 
sport for the $1 Keel stamp)."

The Treacle Mine Road LBE is priced at £5.00 and will be available for 
purchase on – of course! – the 25th of May. For more information, and to 
order, go to:

http://bit.ly/1LqXJUQ

Also, the 25p Keel Glorious 25th Commemorative Sheet:

"Limited edition sheet of Discworld Stamps commemorating the events of 
the Glorious 25th of May, featuring Sgt. John Keel from Terry 
Pratchett's Night Watch. This special version of our $1 Vimes standard 
issue from the Ankh-Morpork Post Office features the exquisite artwork 
of award-winning illustrator and Royal Mail artist Bill Sanderson, and 
is available until the end of June while stocks last. Each stamp has 
been coloured to complement previous versions and is only otherwise 
available as single stamps in the Treacle Mine Road LBE. This exclusive 
sheet measures 174 x 234mm THERE IS NO SPORT FOR THIS STAMP!"

The 25p Keel Commemorative Sheet is priced at £8.00 and will be 
available for purchase on the 25th of May. For more information, and to 
order, go to:

http://bit.ly/1FBp8ml

...and the 3p Watch House stamp:

"A new standard issue from the Ankh-Morpork Post Office's 'Historic 
Ankh-Morpork' series, featuring the Treacle Mine Road Watch House – a 
homage to the events of Terry Pratchett's Night Watch and the People's 
Republic of Treacle Mine Road, each stamp features an illustration of 
Vimes' first Watch Station by Peter Dennis. Traditionally printed on 
authentic gummed stamp paper & perforated by hand. Stamp measures 42 x 
33mm, sheet measures 209 x 198mm. Spot the sport! One stamp on every 
sheet contains a 'deliberate' mistake or variation - only included on 
whole sheets or in lucky LBEs

The Watch House 3p Stamp is priced at £0.50 per stamp or £9.50 for a 
sheet of 19 stamps. For more information, and to order, go to:

http://www.discworldemporium.com/WatchHouse3p


"No homage to the boys from the barricade would be complete without a 
Hard-Boiled Egg, an elegant addition to desk or shelf, and as May 25th 
is also Towel Day (a celebration of the life and work of Douglas Adams) 
you can double up on your literary tributes with a handy Glorious 25th 
Tea-towel – exclusive to the Discworld Emporium! Commemorate the 
Glorious 25th of May with Vimes and the Watch with this elegant 
inscribed hard-boiled egg - a fitting tribute to the boys of Treacle 
Mine Road. Each egg stands at 2 inches high, and is produced in an ivory 
finish and presented in a lilac cotton drawstring pouch."

The Hard Boiled Egg is priced at £5.00. For more information, and to 
order, go to:

http://bit.ly/1Hxndie

"Pay tribute to the boys from Treacle Mine Road and remember the 
Glorious Revolution from Terry Pratchett's Night Watch with our 
commemorative tea towel. Created in the style of a banner from the 
barricades, each towel is emblazoned with the desires of the People's 
Republic, and screen printed in lilac (of course!) onto 100% natural 
cotton. It's almost too lovely to dry the dishes with, so why not hang 
it as a flag of defiance in your abode to commemorate this most poignant 
date in the Discworld calendar."

The Glorious 25th of May tea towel is priced at £6.95. For more 
information, and to order, go to:

http://bit.ly/1LhYsr1

"All the best, and a hard-boiled egg, The Discworld Emporium"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

07) DISCWORLD MEETING GROUPS: UPDATES AND REMINDERS

Canberra, Australia has a new Discworld fan group, Drumknott's 
Irregulars! "We are a newly established Terry Pratchett & Discworld 
social group in Canberra called Drumknott's Irregulars. The group is 
open to all, people from interstate and overseas are welcome, and our 
events will not be heavily themed. Come along to dinner for a chat and 
good company. We welcome people all all fandoms (and none) and we would 
love to see you at one of our events, even if you're just passing 
through. Please contact us via Facebook 
(_https://www.facebook.com/groups/824987924250161/_) or Google Groups 
(_https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/drumknotts-irregulars_) or 
join us at our next event."

*

The Broken Drummers, "London's Premier Unofficially Official Discworld 
Group" (motto "Nil percussio est"), meets next on Monday 1st June 2015. 
For more information, go to http://brokendrummers.org/ or email
BrokenDrummers at gmail.com or nicholls.helen at yahoo.co.uk

*

The Pratchett Partisans are a fan group who meet monthly at either 
Brisbane or Indooroopilly to "eat, drink and chat about all things 
Pratchett". For more info about their next meetup, go to 
www.meetup.com/Pratchett-Partisans/ or contact Ula directly at 
uwilmott at yahoo.com.au

*

The City of Small Gods is a group for fans in Adelaide and South 
Australia. For more information on their upcoming activities, go to 
www.cityofsmallgods.org.au

*

The Broken Vectis Drummers meet next on Thursday 4th June (probably) 
from 7.30pm at The Castle pub in Newport, Isle of Wight. For more info 
and any queries, contact broken_vectis_drummers at yahoo.co.uk

*

The Wincanton Omnian Temperance Society (WOTS) next meets on Friday 5th 
June 2015 (probably) at Wincanton's famous Bear Inn from 7pm onwards. 
"Visitors and drop-ins are always welcome!"

*

The Northern Institute of the Ankh-Morpork and District Society of 
Flatalists, a Pratchett fangroup, has been meeting on a regular basis 
since 2005 but is now looking to take in some new blood (presumably not 
in the non-reformed Uberwald manner). The Flatalists normally meet at 
The Narrowboat Pub in Victoria Street, Skipton, North Yorkshire, to 
discuss "all things Pratchett" as well as having quizzes and raffles. 
Details of future meetings are posted on the Events section of the 
Discworld Stamps forum:

http://www.discworldstamps.co.uk/forum/

*

Sydney Drummers (formerly Drummers Downunder) meet next on Monday 1st 
June 2015 at 6.30pm (probably) in Sydney at 3 Wise Monkeys, 555 George 
Street, Sydney,2000. For more information, contact Sue (aka Granny 
Weatherwax): kenworthys at yahoo.co.uk

*

The Treacle Mining Corporation, formerly known as Perth Drummers, meets 
next on Monday 1st June 2015 (probably) from 5.30pm at Carpe Cafe, 526 
Murray Street, Perth, Western Australia.

For details follow Perth Drummers on Twitter @Perth_Drummers or join 
their Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Perth.Drummers/
– or message Alexandra Ware directly at <alexandra.ware at gmail.com>

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

08) ROUNDWORLD TALES: HIRING FAIRS

To go with the Story Museum's Mort Weekend, here is "Mort, Hiring Fairs, 
and the Statute of Labourers" by Steven D'Aprano:

When young Mort's father decides Mort needs a job, he takes him to the 
hiring fair at Sheepridge:

"The fair seemed to work like this: men looking for work stood in ragged 
lines in the centre of the square. Many of them sported little symbols 
in their hats to tell the world the kind of work they were trained in – 
shepherds wore a wisp of wool, carters a hank of horsehair, interior 
decorators a strip of rather interesting hessian wallcovering, and so on."

Although here in Roundworld there has never been a documented occasion 
where Death has taken an apprentice, our hiring fairs are remarkably 
similar. For at least four hundred years, hiring fairs were an 
institution in the UK. Like the Disc version, people seeking employment 
in Roundworld Britain would advertise their skills, or sometimes lack of 
skills, by dressing in their Sunday best and carrying a tassel or symbol 
of their trade. Such tassels became known as "mops", for the mop-heads 
carried by would-be domestic servants, and the days themselves were also 
called mop days.

Hiring fairs were made possible by the terror of the Black Death that 
swept across Europe and Britain. So many people died, possibly as many 
as half the population, that there was an acute labour shortage. Taking 
advantage of the increased demand for workers, even unskilled labourers 
were able to pick and choose their masters and demand higher wages. In 
1351, the English king Edward III issued a draconian decree to control 
wages at an extremely low rate, with severe penalties on both workers 
who insisted on higher wages and employers who paid them. Workers were 
forbidden from moving to other areas to look for work, and the law 
mandated that anyone physically able to work must do so, under penalty 
of prison. The law was one of the causes of the so-called Peasant's 
Revolt, and although it ended up being poorly enforced, it did lead to a 
fixed day each year where the shire constable would proclaim the 
official rates of pay and conditions for the following twelve months. 
This encouraged both workers and employers to gather to hear the new 
rates, which developed into the hiring fair.

Apart from a lone hawker selling hot pies, possibly a relative of CMOT 
Dibbler, the hiring fair that Mort visited seems to have been a rather 
quiet and sober occasion. In our Roundworld versions, aided by the fact 
that many servants were paid a lump sum at the end of their employment 
and so had a pocketful of cash waiting to be spent, hiring fairs soon 
took on the trappings of the fun fair, with games, rides, food and 
drink, and a real party atmosphere: think of a jobs expo and Spring 
Break all compressed into a single day. Or perhaps it's just that Mort, 
being quite young and naive, merely failed to notice the drunken 
licentiousness going on around him. Writing in 1892 about the town of 
Pocklington, the Reverend Morris reminisced about the hiring days of his 
youth with an endearing mix of disapproval and indulgence:

"Jack and Tommy, Joe and Harry, lustily greeted Polly, Sally, Jane, and 
Maggy; loud and hearty were the salutations between friend and friend 
joyous and exuberant were the spirits of these stalwart specimens of 
humanity. ... It was like pandemonium let loose. All this naturally 
tended to demoralise the young people, and the results can be better 
imagined than described."

It wasn't all fun and games though. In 1848 there was a p'ticu'ly 
'orrible murder of the teenager James Young coming home from the Dudsday 
hiring fair, robbed for the then-considerable sum of 15 shillings in 
silver. The gruesomeness of the murder, and the mystery of what a farm 
servant was doing with so much money, made it quite notorious.

Hiring fairs of a sort continue to exist even today. In some UK towns, 
mop days continue as funfairs, their original purpose forgotten. In 
other places, hiring fairs continue as a form of job expo or trade fair, 
where employers showcase their conditions and try to attract new staff. 
Unfortunately for job seekers, these days there are probably fewer lusty 
greetings and more demoralisation.

Sources for further reading are below.

Statute of Labourers:

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/statlab.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Labourers_1351
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasants'_Revolt

Hiring days:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiring_and_mop_fairs
http://www.pocklingtonhistory.com/archives/people/other/pocklingtonhiringfair/index.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dudsday
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Young
http://www.europeanjobdays.eu/
http://www.uschamberfoundation.org/events/hiringfairs

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

09) AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE

This round of Around the Blogosphere, instead of being the usual varied 
grab-bag of random blogs, is dedicated solely to the essays and reviews 
of one blogger: Graeme Neill, aka Pratchett Job. Mr Neill has undertaken 
the daunting task of reading and reviewing The Author's entire oeuvre, 
and while he's not the ultimate master of beautifully worded reviews, 
his heart is pure and his language and lit-analysis skills are 
definitely up to the job. Here be a selection of extracts from his 
ever-growing set of Pratchett reviews...

Night Watch:

"Vimes assumes the identity of John Keel, his younger self's mentor. Can 
he track down Carcer during revolutionary Ankh-Morpork, find his way 
back into the present and his wife on the verge of giving birth to their 
first child, teach his younger self the ways of proper policing and stop 
the bloody crackdown on the Ankh-Morpork citizens by the Gestapo-like 
Unmentionables? Well, of course he can but it makes for tremendous 
reading. To tell the tale of Winder's downfall, he zeroes in on a small 
part of Ankh-Morpork for the book. Practically no scenes take place 
outside of a square mile or two of the Discworld's greatest/foulest 
city. This places the import of what is happening directly in front of 
the reader. It's all well and good talking about the wide dramatic sweep 
of revolution but the critical thing is, it's about the people. Your 
cousin, your gran, the fella you drink with who lives two streets away 
but is now on the other side of the divide because he wanted to join the 
army. War and conflict may change things but ultimately it affects us. 
Pratchett juggles a wide cast of characters better than he has ever 
done, all orbiting around Keel, and you really feel part of a community 
in reading the novel... This is what I like about Pratchett, although it 
is a point of view many may disagree with. Unlike a world where the 
police is the black fist of the state or the people are the great noble 
unwashed, people, according to Pratchett, are dicks. It's when ideas 
gain momentum and spiral out of control that people get hurt. The People 
tended to be small-minded and conservative and not very clever and were 
even distrustful of cleverness. And so the children of the revolution 
were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn't that you had the wrong 
kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind 
of people. Which doesn't make it easy for those wanting an easy 
political stance to stand behind but good people, and bad, are 
everywhere... Night Watch is devoid of easy answers. What is law? Who 
should enforce it? Who should dictate it? There is nothing definitive 
through the book because even Vimes, as an archetypal cop that plays by 
his own rules, is not someone who really should be the exemplar of the 
law. What I get from reading Pratchett is that I am not sure that he 
necessarily knew the answer but it was the writing that helped him 
explore the issue and get closer to some sort of resolution..."

pratchettjob.wordpress.com/2015/05/15/revolution-night-watch/

The Wee Free Men:

"Many of the early Discworld novels looked at death and our passage into 
what lies next. It still ranks among his best writing, with brilliant 
scenes in Maskerade between Death and Granny Weatherwax, and in Mort. 
Yet he never quite handled the aftermath of death. Soul Music purported 
to be about grief but got mislaid in a maze of whimsy and genuinely 
dreadful puns. In The Wee Free Men, the most important character of the 
book is not actually in it. And that's Granny Aching, Tiffany's 
grandmother and legend of the Chalk. She died two years before the 
events of the book and her absence still haunts Tiffany, who discovered 
her dead body. Granny Aching ruled the Chalk, with shepherds seeking the 
respect of someone who was the region's greatest shepherdess. She fits 
into the bracket of Pratchett characters who have a quiet pride about 
what they can do. But like Weatherwax, Granny Aching appeared to be a 
closed character, embracing silence and the peace of the Chalk. Tiffany, 
in her youthful immaturity, mistakes that for her grandmother dismissing 
her... The heart of the book is her dealing with her grief, and growing 
up. Because while Tiffany is the heroine, she is rather full of herself. 
The narrator pokes fun at her self-conscious verbosity and how she's a 
bit too proud of using the word 'gibbous' to describe a moon. It's 
possible that this tells you more about Tiffany than she would want you 
to know. The book takes its foundations in old folktales, of children 
wishing their siblings went away and their parents loved only them. The 
Queen, who gives people want they want by keeping them forever young, is 
someone who is a dark mirror of Tiffany, a regent who never wants to 
grow up... Tiffany's acceptance of who she should be, the big sister, 
the mature person, at the end of the book gives it a neat morality play. 
'Yes! I'm me! I'm careful and logical and I look up things I don't 
understand! When I hear people use the wrong words I get edgy. I am good 
with cheese. I read books fast! I think! And I always have a piece of 
string. That's the kind of person I am!' I LOVE the line 'I am good with 
cheese'. It is just quite quite brilliant..."

pratchettjob.wordpress.com/2015/05/22/kicker-of-elves-the-wee-free-men/

Witches Abroad:

"Lilith held up a mirror to Life, and chopped all the bits off Life that 
didn't fit. Given their frequent use in fairytales, it is not much of a 
surprise that mirrors feature heavily throughout the novel with Lilith a 
dark reflection of Esme. Except things aren't as simple as that. This is 
the second novel to feature the coven and it is increasingly apparent 
that Granny is not a terribly nice person. She could conceivably be the 
wicked witch of the novel and that's why she is such a great character. 
Granny is arrogant, blunt and insensitive. As Nanny herself says: You'd 
have to go a long day's journey to find someone basically nastier than 
Esme...and this is me saying it. She knows exactly what she is. She was 
born to be good and doesn't like it. She deliberately tries to wreck a 
happy ending, where the dowdy maid marries the prince (or in this case, 
a baron, who used to be a frog. Because fairy tales) and lives happily 
ever after. When she confronts Lilith at the end, she is furious that 
she had to be the good sister. But, as has been the case in the 
Discworld from the beginning, things aren't as simple as that. Lilith 
shows how Granny's powers could be used for ill... Not only are we shown 
that Happily Ever After is a bad thing, how the hero could be (and 
wishes she was) The Wicked Witch, there is also the figure of Mrs Gogol, 
a fascinating supporting character. She is a voodoo practitioner, 
accompanied by her zombie assistant Baron Saturday (a brilliant nod to 
voodoo culture), and highly ambiguous. Like Granny, she could easily 
have been the villain of the piece. Saturday is similarly interesting, 
when it is revealed he is the zombified former ruler of Genua and Ella's 
dad. He hadn't been a kind ruler. But he'd fitted. And when he'd been 
arbitrary or arrogant or just plain wrong, he'd never suggested that 
this was justified by anything other than the fact that he was bigger 
and stronger and occasionally nastier than other people... Darkness 
aside, this is a very funny novel. Nanny's cat Greebo becoming briefly 
human and embarking on the same violent, sadistic perverted trail of 
destruction he loved when he was a feline is a joy to behold. Magrat as 
the belle of the ball as possessed with the confident/arrogant spirit of 
Granny is wonderful. The junior witch, all dreams and naivety, could be 
seen as a mere comic foil against which Granny and Nanny's more 
unsavoury characteristics spark off. I think this is unfair and 
Pratchett continues to lay down some character groundwork with her that 
really pays off in Lords and Ladies..."

pratchettjob.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/holiday-surprise-witches-abroad/

Soul Music:

"Soul Music is not a good book. It's mediocre and really disappointing, 
doubly so as I really enjoyed this when I was younger. While he does try 
to do something different and move on from the themes of the first chunk 
of Discworld novels, its execution is lacklustre. Thus far, Pratchett 
has been excellent in writing about death – I've written before about 
the excellent scene in Mort where Death's temporary apprentice shepherds 
a woman into the afterlife but any scene with Death actually doing his 
job is full of warmth and humanity. That's one but there are countless – 
a wonderful scene between Granny and Death is a few books down the line 
in Maskerade. Soul Music purports to deal with the other side of death, 
which hasn't been explored to date. That of grief and those you leave 
behind when you die. It's infuriating because you feel this is something 
Pratchett should be able to handle easily and leave you sobbing by the 
novel's end... Here's why it doesn't work. Surrounding this theme of 
grief is the wider plot. Soul Music tries to do for rock and roll what 
Moving Pictures did for film. Armed with a mystical guitar, Imp Y Celyn 
brings rock and roll to Ankh-Morpork. He should have died shortly after 
arriving but Death has gone awol again following the death of his 
adopted daughter Isabel and son-in-law Mort. Stepping into his robes is 
Susan, his precocious granddaughter. She turns up to watch Imp (now 
rechristened as Buddy) die tragically during his first gig. This doesn't 
happen. The music saves him. Cue the inevitable fallout of what happens 
when grand schemes are interfered with. The weakest thing about Moving 
Pictures was its flimsy to nonexistent satire of the film industry. It 
made up for this with a plot charged with unstoppable momentum, an 
excellent sub-plot about social responsibility and some excellent jokes 
and puns. Soul Music fails on all three counts..."

pratchettjob.wordpress.com/2015/02/06/strength-of-strings-soul-music/

The Last Hero:

"The book is *gorgeous*. The illustrations of Paul Kidby, who took over 
as the Discworld's cover designer after the death of Josh Kirby in 2001, 
are exquisite and include detailed blueprints of the works of Of Quirm. 
Taking a look at a web reproduction of one of the pages – an excellent 
astronautical representation of the three crew members of the mission – 
really doesn't do it justice. If you don't own this and are reading this 
write-up, buy the book. You won't regret it. This very much feels like 
an early 1990s Discworld novel, with the threats of world-ending 
calamity and gods toying with the fates of men and women (and dwarves, 
trolls, vampire, werewolves and any other species I have left out. 
Dragons! Bugger). But Pratchett has come off the back of my favourite 
novel of his and is just staggering in his ambition and range of writing 
at the moment... The illustrated format means that Leonard's creativity 
is translated in a way the reader hasn't seen before, with pages of his 
designs filling the book. I feel The Last Hero belongs to him, the 
purest creative force the Discworld has ever seen, forever sketching 
perfect circles or new inventions. Pratchett hearkens back to Moving 
Pictures in his belief that creativity, imagination and genius are 
great, but they are for naught without life experience. Leonard has 
spent years locked away by The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, where he 
invents in benign captivity. What The Last Hero does is take him to the 
end of the world and beyond. The scene where our adventurers land on the 
moon and watch the colossal elephants bear the weight of the Disc on 
their backs is wonderful. By failing to explain what they are seeing, 
Pratchett conveys the sheer wonder of their shared experience. Besides, 
there was just...too much. Too much of everything. He wasn't used to 
seeing this much universe in one go. The blue disc of the world, 
unrolling slowly as the moon rose, looked outnumbered. In fact, 
Leonard's close encounter with the Discworld leads to his greatest ever 
work. At the end of the book, the gods punish Leonard by demanding he 
paint the ceiling of the Temple of the Small Gods, with nods to 
Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel. What he achieves because he 
experienced life was his greatest achievement and one that will live on 
for centuries...

pratchettjob.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/hero-worship-the-last-hero/

Reaper Man:

"What is interesting about Reaper Man is that he goes back to a book 
that was actually pretty decent in the first place and gives us 
something deeper and more satisfying, even if you have read its original 
source of inspiration. That book is Mort. What I loved about that book 
was a newly slack Death propping up a bar in Ankh-Morpork, drunkenly 
watching the sun rise and packing in the whole 'gatekeeper to the 
netherworld' thing to become a brutally effective chef. But it was 
relegated into the background in favour of the much less satisfying main 
plot. Not so here. Death again leaves his job, this time because he has 
been made redundant. His embracing of his own freshly imposed mortality 
is the main engine of the plot. But thankfully, the secondary plot is 
just as good. After introducing the first *true* magicians of the 
Discworld in Moving Pictures, they are brought back here and are just as 
much of a hoot. Moreso here than in Reaper Man's predecessor, the 
wizards fascinate me as a group of characters. Given how they exist as 
one chaotic group comprising a mix of contradictory argumentative parts, 
they remind me of one character, trying to deal with a wide ranging of 
different emotions – from bluntness or pragmatism (the Archchancellor) 
to pedantry and a penchant for overthinking (the glorious Senior 
Wrangler). It's a neat thematic sequel to Moving Pictures because it 
again explores the importance of knowledge and empathy and how realising 
it's using both together that are essential... Windle Poons realises he 
has never made the most of life. His one hundred and thirty years of 
studying the arcane are for naught when he has never experienced the 
dubious pleasures of Ankh-Morpork or spoken to people who don't wear any 
robes outside of dressing gowns. Death is another character full of 
knowledge, but doesn't really know how to feel. Pratchett has written 
previously about the power and danger of books but he goes one further 
here. Knowledge is fine, but empathy is as important in order to live a 
full life... This is like Guards! Guards! for me. It's flawed but hits 
with such a satisfying power that you can sweep the lazy threat and meh 
third act to one side..."

pratchettjob.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/death-and-all-the-rest-reaper-man/

TAMAHER:

"Discussions about this book being his first young adult Discworld novel 
are moot. His popularity has shown he has had legions of teen fans and 
he had written several YA titles before embarking on this series. What 
is important is this was the first Discworld book explicitly marketed 
for the young adult market. The reason this is so interesting to me is 
because the content of Amazing Maurice is so bloody dark. Let's do a 
quick list of what happens in the novel. There is cannibalism, children 
getting assaulted, poisoning, mind control, battles against the darkness 
that resides in all of us. This is coupled with debates about what makes 
us us and how to negotiate diplomatic solutions between very very 
different people (and rats. And cats). This is children's fiction as it 
should be. I've written before of my love of Roald Dahl, no stranger to 
exposing children to twisted tales. You don't need me to tell you 
darkness has long been a mainstay in children's fiction from the 
Brothers Grimm onwards. Amazing Maurice is considerably darker than 
other Discworld novels but is written with a care and intelligence that 
places it alongside some of his best... In another book, the thoughtful 
Dangerous Beans would eventually become the leader of the rat pack. But 
the real world in Uberwald is nasty and one where the much more 
pragmatic for which Darktan is appropriate... This book celebrates clear 
thinking and knowing your weaknesses. It's little wonder Darktan is a 
expert trap disarmer. The traps throughout the book represent more than 
just a piece of cheese on a string. Traps result in you reverting to 
your base nature. Humans resort to violence or cowardice, cats to 
hunting rats... Even the happy ending is barbed. The residents of Bad 
Blintz welcome their new rodent neighbours, reinventing the village as 
one of Uberwald's greatest tourist attractions, but it makes no 
difference whatsoever. The village is a wonderful demonstration of 
tolerance, showing visitors how we can all live together, but..."

http://bit.ly/1IV3sTn

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

10) MORE IMAGES OF THE MONTH

The face of Paul Kidby's Discworld baron, and its original model:
http://bit.ly/1G7v478

...and Kidby's preliminary drawing of Cohen for The Last Hero:
http://bit.ly/1PuC4kr

Sean Phillips' drawing of Neil Gaiman carrying Aziraphale's flaming 
sword and Agnes Nutter's Book of Prophecy, as featured on the Tee Fury 
Alzheimer's fundraising Good Omens t-shirt (see item __):
http://bit.ly/1PBp90h

Jani Kuha's (literal) masterpiece – a stunning depiction of the 
Discworld, complete with elephants and Star Turtle, that won him his 
degree as a ceramic sculptor:
http://bit.ly/1c1BGYh

Discworld stairs!
http://bit.ly/1d04mCr

Fantastic drawing titled "13 Witches", by Andrew Salt. Petulia's pig is 
your Editor's favourite:
http://bit.ly/1L8xh2q

Oliver Sacks and baby orangutan, early May 2015:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CE0Ak1AVIAAivhO.jpg

This one needs no explanation:
http://bit.ly/1Fco6Nr

The official Wincanton twin towns sign!
http://bit.ly/1HhY65F

Lovely photo of Sandra, the orangutan who's been declared a person:
http://ind.pn/1Hit7B4

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

11) CLOSE

...and that's it for this Glorious 25th issue. I think. I hope. I truly 
did think it was going to get easier, but the sheer volume of 
Pratchett-and-Discworld-related news keeps growing and growing. And this 
is a *good* thing, because it means that the ripples are not only not 
likely to fade, but also are ever more likely to become a rushing tide 
that etches Terry Pratchett's name and works into the shores of the 
public's consciousness for years beyond counting. However, it also means 
I'm having to devote twice as much of the time I don't have in the first 
place to bringing you the best Wossname issues I can put together. So I 
think I might have to have a bit of a break, and go back to sending out 
only one issue per month as used to be the norm. However, time-dependent 
updates, such as Discworld plays being performed between regular issues, 
and also assorted photos, posters and illustrations, will continue to go 
up on the blog/mirror site at Dreamwidth. If you haven't had a chance to 
go look, do go look!

Don't forget to raise your glasses on the Glorious 25th. See you next month!

– Annie Mac

The mirror version of this issue can be viewed at 
http://wossname.dreamwidth.org/14175.html

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The End. If you have any questions or requests, write: wossname-owner 
(at) pearwood (dot) info

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Copyright (c) 2015 by Klatchian Foreign Legion