Wossname -- March 2015 -- 2nd issue

[wossname]

Wossname
Newsletter of the Klatchian Foreign Legion
March 2015 (Volume 18, Issue 3, Post 4)

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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.
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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) QUOTES, CONTINUED
02) EDITOR'S LETTER
03) TRIBUTES, CONTINUED
04) ...AND THE REST
05) MORE ON "SENDING HOME"
06) DISCWORLD GAMES NEWS
07) ALZHEIMER'S NEWS
08) DISCWORLD PLAYS NEWS
09) IMAGES, CONTINUED
10) CLOSE

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01) MORE QUOTES

"I carried my father's sword at his funeral. Not many daughters who can say that."
– Rhianna Pratchett

"I believe everyone should have a good death. You know, with your grandchildren around you; a bit of sobbing. Because, after all, tears are appropriate on a death bed. And you say goodbye to your loved ones, making certain that one of them has been left behind to look after the shop."
– The Author

"GNU Terry Pratchett is not fan graffiti, plastering the author's name all over the public-facing internet – the tribute is invisible unless you know how to look ('view source' on a browser). For a digital literary monument, it's surely much better to avoid the kitsch of a Facebook memorial page. And millions of RIP tweets will soon be lost, like tears in rain. By contrast, the encoding of Pratchett's name into the fabric of the internet seems a fitting modern homage, as though millions of computers were whispering his name, and chuckling softly to themselves."
– Steven Poole in The Guardian

"Terry was kindly, driven and intolerant of half measures. Last year when he, Neil Gaiman and I collaborated, despite his illness Terry was very lucid about the areas where we should not compromise. It was a glimpse into the acute mental discipline that was the foundation of the worlds he seemed to write about so effortlessly."
– Good Omens radio producer Dirk Maggs

"The most prominent connection, but perhaps hardest to define, is Pratchett's influence over PC gaming as a whole, from the people who make them to those of us who just play them. It wouldn't be a stretch to suggest that most comedic fantasy games have been in some way been influenced and inspired by the Discworld novels."
– Christopher Livingston of PC Gamer

"As an educator, I gave Sir Terry Pratchett the greatest honor I could: I never tried to teach one of his works. They weren't made to be taught. Lord of the Flies is made to be taught. Poor Piggy. The Discworld novels served a higher, more personal purpose, to illuminate our world with high humor, and when you least expected it, rake with some unexpected wisdom or altogether unlooked for insight."
– an uncredited teacher on sociopolitical blog Scholars and Rogues

"As we watch memorial after memorial crop up to Terry Pratchett — obituaries, articles, posts plastered over social media — we should remember him for all that he was. Not just one of the greatest fantasy writers of this generation, but one of its greatest writers."
– Margaret Sessa-Hawkins, on The Millions

"Ever since I discovered Discworld in 1989 at the British Library in Delhi, hardly a day has passed that I didn't explore some part or the other of it. It was a like a walk in the evening to meet old friends and see familiar sights. For a small town boy with a chip on his shoulder, these daily visits proved transformative. I learnt to question my beliefs, to laugh at myself and accept people who looked, sounded or thought different from me. The greatest sin, I learnt, was to treat people as things. Thank you Sir Terry. I only wish, the sand would flow upwards in your hourglass."
– Satrajit Bhattacharya

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02) A LETTER FROM YOUR EDITOR

My apologies go to you, O Readers, as I still haven't found time to gather my own thoughts in the bustle of gathering the thoughts of others. So no personal tribute or reviews from me this issue. But they will come. In the meantime...

As Wincanton has been twinned with Ankh-Morpork since 2002, it's about time that it had a properly Discworld-y pub sign — and now it has. Antony Yateman, landlord of Uncle Tom's Cabin, an old-fashioned, thatch-roofed pub that would not look at all out of place in A-M itself, now sports a beautiful sign that references The Mended Drum. The sign was created by illustrator (and Uncle Tom's regular) Richard Kingston of the Discworld Emporium. Mr Yateman said, "I commissioned the new sign, and was hoping that Sir Terry would unveil it himself. Sadly he died, but the sign is now up and serves as a memorial to a great author and character." The pub is located at 51 High St, Wincanton, Somerset BA9 9JU, if you happen to fancy a pilgrimage. To view an image of the sign, go to http://bit.ly/1xK5KCf

Also on the subject of Discworld pubs in Roundworld, The Broken Drum in Blackfen will open for business next Friday, 3rd April 2015. Landlord and Discworld fan Andy Wheeler jumped through all the necessary hoops to turn a disused nail bar into a licenced "micropub" selling real ale, wine and cider. While a certain Librarian might be disappointed by the lack of anything resembling a Barbarian Invaders machine, Roundworld pubgoers will surely appreciate the deliberate lack of
"electronic games, TV, music and mobile phones", a Mr Wheeler puts it: "I now hope to promote locals to relax and converse in a friendly atmosphere with good ale to drink." To read more about the Drum, go to http://bit.ly/1CRq4ne

*

Multiple donations of €50,00 and £50.00 lead the list of more than 2,000 donors to the Research Institute for the Care of Older People (RICE), the Bath-based nationwide UK charity of which Sir Terry was both patron and care recipient. RICE provides "services and support for people with Alzheimer's disease and other memory problems", and engages in "vital research to learn more about the ageing process, find new and better treatments, and improve the quality of life for older people". The donations page can be found at https://www.justgiving.com/Terry-Pratchett/ and the RICE homepage at http://www.rice.org.uk/

The official statement from RICE this week:

"Many thanks to everyone who has donated to RICE in memory of Sir Terry Pratchett, the total raised is now £50,515. We would also like to thank Sir Terry's publishers for setting up the page and for the £1000 donation from Transworld. "

*

As a tribute on the passing of Sir Terry Pratchett, BBC Radio 4 will repeat its fantastic six-episode radio play of Good Omens. The repeat broadcast dates are 6th through 10th April 2015 at 23.30, and then the final instalment on 11th April at 14.30. Don't forget, listeners all over the world can access this programme. For more information go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04knt4h

And the ripples that will not fade continue...

– Annie Mac, Editor

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03) EULOGIES, TRIBUTES, OBITUARIES...

In the Irish Times, a tribute from Colin Smythe:

"Terry's love of Trinity came about because of the Library's Long Room: he adored the great barrel-vaulted curve of the wooden ceiling which he first saw when he came to Dublin to receive an honorary doctorate of literature in 2008 (on the same day that Sir David Attenborough received his). Terry thought the library was ideal territory for the Unseen University's orangutan Librarian, one in which that great ape would be entirely at home...

"The Library inspired the idea of the cartoon short, The Duel, a battle between two wizardly professors for the same book that came to fruition in 2013. It was a collaboration between Trinity's Animation Hub, the staff and students of Ballyfermot College, TCD, and animation studio Giant Creative. On October 16th, 2013, Terry, Rob and I flew to Dublin to see its premiere. It could suitably be described as a success. Who noticed that the book on the Librarian's desk had its title on the back cover? It proved to be Terry's last visit to Dublin, as his PCA symptoms made it impossible for him to travel, although he was still slowly working at one final Discworld novel, The Shepherd's Crown, featuring Tiffany Aching, which he completed last year, and will be published this autumn...

"Our working association therefore covered nearly half a century. It is hard to look at a future without Terry, his humour, wicked bubble-pricking comments, his amazing inventiveness, his style, the deftness of his puns, and the deep moral sense that pervaded all of the books, without being obtrusive. Time and again readers of his books have told me how their lives had been shaped by them. And every time I finished reading a new book, I did so with a sense of immense satisfaction at having read yet another work by a master, at the tremendous sense of superb craftsmanship he had brought to the book, this amazing skill that produced books that can be read again and again over the years without ever feeling a loss of admiration, and discovering some historical or literary reference or joke that had passed me by on earlier readings..."

To read Colin's full tribute, go to http://bit.ly/1CnlhXj

[Editor's note: at the top of the piece, the headline reads "A tribute to Terry Pratchett by his agent, the man who first published him in 1971". The correct date was actually 1968]


A tribute from Wincanton Window, a news site of Ankh-Morpork's twin town, by John Smith:

"Terry leaves Wincanton a great legacy that will never be forgotten. He will live forever in the minds and hearts of his fans all over the world, but particularly here in Wincanton, being the only town in the universe twinned with the fictional city of Ankh Morpork. Families today will be able to pass down stories to their children about Terry, his books and the famous Discworld Weekends in Wincanton. Maybe someday people will ask about some of the street names in Wincanton, and why they were given those names. After all Peach Pie Street is a perfectly normal street name..."

http://bit.ly/1D9ojjK


A superb tribute – with giggle-inducing opener – by author Nick Harkaway in The Guardian:

"[M]y friend said, 'Terry Pratchett lives just down the road!' We'd been discussing Wiltshire as a place to live – my friend had recently moved there... I had to admit the Pratchett connection was a powerful plus. 'Do you see him a lot?' I asked. 'Almost every day. He walks past the bottom of my garden.' 'What's he like?' I asked. My friend sighed. 'Mostly, he's a hat,' he said. 'The hedge is just a little bit shorter than he is, so I see his hat and occasionally an ear as he goes by.' After that, we sat quietly for a while, until finally my friend said: 'I suppose one day, if the wind's strong enough, it might blow off.'

"The man who died last week was possessed of a talent so magnetic that a perfectly rational person would sit in the garden day in and day out, hoping for a meteorological caprice to reveal the top of his head. I never met him, though I have loved his work since 1983, and now I think that will be my enduring image of him: a peripatetic black hat seen over a hedge, like the tip of a very funny iceberg... Reading the news after his death was announced, you could almost have believed that Pratchett was primarily a commentator on the human heart or a revealer of societal insanity. He was those things, of course, but more: Pratchett was genuinely, reliably funny. Even his less funny books were funny. We should add him to that infamous list – pizza, sex and Terry Pratchett. Even when they're bad, they're still pretty damn good..."

http://bit.ly/1G6icNO


A heartbreaking tribute from Paul Kruzycki, the Discworld Ales man:

"When Terry Pratchett first met me he didn't know who I was. The last time I was fortunate to spend time in his company, the same was sadly true. Ravaged by his embuggerance, his brave fight was coming to an end and the vicious bastard that is PCA had finally rendered him silent... I'm just a little younger than Terry was when we first met – when he decided not to snuff out an offer to run a Discworld fan convention. Would I feel the same way now if asked to put my faith in an untested, unknown person? Would I put my faith and trust in them? In honour of my friend and his vision, for what remains of my life I will try. I owe Terry a tremendous debt of gratitude. He gave me a chance to shine...

"Over the years we had our moments – friendships do. We fell out, we disagreed and more than once relations broke down with only essential communication via third parties. During those times I missed being able to seek his counsel. A true friendship survives these trials: his capacity for forgiveness and reconciliation was massive. My temperament when younger didn't help, for sure. More than once he gave a way back, when frankly he didn't need to. The generosity of these actions is what I will remember of him most. He really had no obligation to put his faith in me again and again – looking back now as I reflect on our history I can finally understand just what our friendship was. I know a lot of what he felt for me – and I for him – was unspoken. A very British friendship indeed... A generous friend, he was prepared to let me play in his creation and to create ales based on his characters. Others would not have been so overwhelmingly generous. I've had so much fun in his world..."

http://www.discworldales.co.uk/


A tribute, with footnote, by Jonathan O'Brien of UK booksellers (and long-time staunch Pratchett promoters) Waterstones:

"I would have been about eight years old and I'd discovered the Discworld through the old 'point and click' PC game. I played the game for months. I loved the world, the city of Ankh Morpork, the wonderful mix of magic and humour, and when I heard that it was all based on a series of books I asked my mum if I could read them. I didn't understand everything in The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. My dad had to explain what 'In Sewer Ants' was and it was years before I learnt why the iconograph kept running out of pink before all the other colours, but I devoured it over and over again. I remember sitting in the car outside school and talking to my mum about Cohen taking pictures of himself standing over his defeated foes. She, no doubt imagining some terrifying scene, said that maybe I shouldn't be reading these books. I panicked, worried that I'd managed to talk my way out of reading more of something I knew I loved. I explained that it wasn't violent but funny and, after about five minutes of non-stop backtracking, I managed to convince her to let me keep reading them... I begged to go to to the [Hogfather] signing at Hammicks. My grandparents took me out of school for the day and we queued for hours to meet him. He was, of course, lovely. We spoke for a few minutes, he signed my book and I bounced around with excitement for the rest of the day. Whoever said you should never meet your heroes had obviously never met Terry Pratchett... As a bookseller it's always been impossible not to come to work and think in some way of L-Space. Terry Pratchett's words and ideas are locked deep inside me and every other person who has read him over the years. I probably owe far more of my personality than I realise to him and his books..."

https://www.waterstones.com/blog/sir-terry-pratchett-1948-2015


A fine obit/tribute by Giles Hardie in th Sydney Morning Herald:

In many ways, all you need to know about Sir Terry Pratchett is this: When he died, his fans launched an online petition requesting Death to reinstate the author. To the uninitiated it might seem tasteless or a sign of mislaid grief. To those in the know, it was a perfectly logical step. Death is a certainty for all of us, but for fans of the author Death is also an ever-present character. Death is a grandfather, a rider of a horse named Binky, a lover of cats, A TALKER IN ALL CAPS and a beloved friend who would at least be approachable on this topic and give it due consideration. Sadly, he did not. Fittingly though, Pratchett's death was announced by Death himself... Such was the magic of Pratchett. He gave Death life. Though this was only one of this literary magician's many tricks. Here was proof that an author must master drama in order to write the best comedy..."

http://bit.ly/1BIAW0L


An interesting remembrance from Zoheb Mashiur & Aadiyat Ahmad in Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star:

"He was an enormously successful writer, Discworld alone having sold more than 75 million copies worldwide. Yet this success was hard-won, and in many respects his reader-base has been a steadily-growing cult. Due to misconceptions about what he wrote, mainstream recognition of his work has been slow in coming, and still insufficient. Pratchett was ostensibly a fantasy satirist, which is one of the worst combinations of labels one can have if they wish to be taken seriously.

"Humour is seen as low and dirty in contemporary culture and not worth proper critical or scholarly attention (as an example from another medium, no one has ever won an Academy Award for comedic work). And fantasy as a genre has for the longest time been seen as niche, which has only recently turned around with the success of The Lord of the Rings films, Harry Potter and HBO's Game of Thrones. Yet few discussions of contemporary authors who are culturally significant – authors with a rich understanding of human nature, authors who wrote cleverly – indeed any discussion of contemporary literature would be unlikely to so much as touch upon Terry Pratchett. It is the price of writing about flat worlds on the backs of cosmic turtles... He was no mere summariser of others' work, of course: his gift for seeing clearly into the truth of things was coupled with a humour that was as biting as it was kind. Pratchett understood. Few writers have written so intelligently and comprehensively on the human condition, and even fewer have done so using wizards and dragons. He has demonstrated fantasy's power as a tool for social criticism, and it's going to be some time before the importance of his work fully sinks in..."

http://www.thedailystar.net/shout/remembrance/dont-fear-the-reaper-72123


A loving farewell by William Shaw in the Oxford Student

"Pratchett was an immensely skilled prose stylist, with a knack for the comedic turn of phrase and a great ability at assembling silly, yet deeply thoughtful plots. When it came to satire he could give Douglas Adams a run for his money, and he rivalled P.G. Wodehouse for sheer readability. He was, quite simply, one of Britain's finest comic novelists, and his work ethic was such that, even after his death, he still has two more novels yet to be published, the fourth book in his Long Earth series with Stephen Baxter, and the final Discworld instalment... for all their weirdness, his novels always maintain a solid grounding in the material world. Pratchett places his examination and parody of genre tropes and the conventions alongside observational humour about real-world institutions and phenomena... Pratchett was able to balance these real-world concerns with an extraordinary gift for comedy. His novels are immensely quotable – I had cause to quote him in an article just last month – and that degree of quotability is the mark of a skilled and powerful writer whose works stick with their readers. And Pratchett has undeniably left a mark on those who have read him..."

http://oxfordstudent.com/2015/03/22/a-farewell-to-terry-pratchett/


On examiner.com, Sean O'Connor offers an impressively comprehensive four-part series on Pratchett's life, works and publishing history, complete with many links (including, on the fourth page, an embedded link to Sir Pterry's inaugural Trinity lecture, "The Importance of Being Amazed about Absolutely Everything"):

Part I: http://www.examiner.com/article/sir-terry-pratchett-1948-2015-part-i
Part II: http://www.examiner.com/article/sir-terry-pratchett-1948-2015-part-ii
Part III: http://www.examiner.com/article/sir-terry-pratchett-1948-2015-part-iii
Part IV: http://www.examiner.com/article/sir-terry-pratchett-1948-2015-part-iv


In The Times Higher Education supplement, John Gilbey's remembrance:

"How do you judge the greatness of a writer? By the number of copies sold? Awards received? Translations of works into other media and other languages? Or is greatness more than that: the ability of the writer to get inside the head of the reader and paint enduringly vivid pictures of invented places, people and events that are 'real' in every important sense? By any of these measures, Sir Terry Pratchett was a great writer...

"The Discworld universe is huge, deep and complex, and it seems almost shocking that so much fruitful imagination could have come from a single person. I was eager to know how Pratchett did it, and managed to meet him in the summer of 2010 when he spoke at the University of Winchester's Writers' Conference – a riotously funny and insightful stream-of-consciousness talk that captured and enraptured the audience of wannabe Pratchetts. Pratchett already knew that he was on borrowed time, and my timid request for an interview was based on anxious hope rather than expectation, but he gave up a generous chunk of his day to talk with me in a dank student bar about the art of writing, childhood, sword-making, the dangers of bureaucracy and other important things ('Fantastic voyager', 16 September 2010). Then we had lunch, a cheerful dreamlike event with chilled white wine. I'd long wondered if he conversed in the same genial voice that he wrote with, and was delighted to find that he did..."

http://bit.ly/1F2Ldbz


A tribute from PC Gamer, written by Christopher Livingston:

"It goes without saying that many connections can be drawn between Pratchett's writing career and the rise of PC gaming. The most obvious, naturally, are the games themselves: The Colour of Magic, the text adventure from 1986; Discworld, Discworld 2, and Discworld Noir, all point-and-click adventures; and Discworld MUD, a text based role-playing game. In 1993, Pratchett appeared on the cover PC Gamer Magazine — the very first issue of the magazine, in fact. Inside, he was interviewed by Gary Whitta about his books and the upcoming Discworld adventure game.

"Pratchett played plenty of games himself. He loved computers in general, and he told PC Gamer he enjoyed games like Wing Commander, X-Wing, and Prince of Persia. He described the addictive nature of Tetris as 'a computer virus which human beings can catch.'... The most prominent connection, but perhaps hardest to define, is Pratchett's influence over PC gaming as a whole, from the people who make them to those of us who just play them. It wouldn't be a stretch to suggest that most comedic fantasy games have been in some way been influenced and inspired by the Discworld novels. Scroll through any gaming forum and you're likely to find passionate discussions about his books and the fervent hope of there someday being more Discworld games. Stroll through any fantasy MMO and you're bound to spot an avatar named Sam Vimes. Rincewind. Angua. Cheery Littlebottom...

"We've made a PDF of the 1993 PC Gamer interview with Terry Pratchett available [on the web page], which you can pop out and download for easier legibility...."

http://www.pcgamer.com/a-tribute-to-terry-pratchett/


A eulogy from noted science fiction author Charles Stross:

"I first met him, incidentally, back in 1984, at a British eastercon in Leeds. It was, I think, my first SF convention. Or my second. I was a spotty 17- or 18-year-old nerd, wandering around with a manuscript in a carrier bag, looking for an editor — this was before the internet made it easy to discover that this was not the done thing, or indeed before word processors made typewritten manuscripts obsolescent... Back then, Terry was not some gigantic landmark of comedy literature, with famous critics in serious newspapers bending over to compare his impact on the world of letters to that of P. G. Wodehouse. Terry was earning his living as a press officer and writing on the side and didn't feel embarrassed about letting other people pay for the drinks. And so over the next few years I bought him a pint or two, and began to read the books. Which is why I only got hooked on Terry's shtick after I'd met him as Terry the convention-going SF fan...

"Terry was not only a very funny man; he was an irascible (and occasionally bad-tempered) guy who did not suffer fools gladly. However, he was also big-hearted enough to forgive the fools around him if they were willing to go halfway to meeting him by ceasing to be foolish at him. He practiced a gracious professionalism in his handling of the general public that spared them the harsh side of his tongue, and he was, above all, humane. As the fame snowballed, he withdrew a bit: appreciating that there was a difference between a sharp retort from your mate Terry at the bar and a put-down from Terry Pratchett, superstar, he stepped lightly and took pains to avoid anything that might cause distress..."

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2015/03/terry-pratchett.html


A hand-copied salvo from Private Eye magazine, by "Bookworm"

"Absent from the many pages of lamentation following Terry Pratchett's death was any expression of regret over the way the same publications had ignored him until recently, let alone any acknowledgement of snobbery or hypocrisy.

"Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s the broadsheet press rarely reviewed Pratchett's books or interviewed him, and literary and media folk (with the honourable exception of AS Byatt) were happy to leave him to their school-age or student offspring. He won only fantasy or children's awards, TV and radio arts programmes avoided him, and mainstream broadcasters' drama divisions were only interested in his kids' books (though Sky began adapting some adult works a decade ago).

"If asked to explain the neglect, the sniffy cultural gatekeepers involved would probably have dismissed him as someone who wrote genre fiction, churned out two or more books a year and, worst of all, was, oh dear, funny; and, as his publisher was the shamelessly commercial Transworld, he lacked the offsetting attraction of his bestsellers subsidising authors of difficult literary novels, as JK Rowling's did at Bloomsbury. Only after Pratchett announced that he had early-onset Alzheimer's in 2007 (and later began discussing assisted suicide) did everything change: at last he was talking about something serious, not silly Discworld!"

[Editor's note: special thanks to Colin Smythe for this one.]


A very intelligent eulogy by Arthur Chu on Thoughtcatalog:

"Pratchett was a bundle of contradictions in his lifetime. He was 'conventional' and 'commercial' in comparison to China Mieville, certainly – his books were wildly popular, and he was wildly prolific, to a degree normally seen only among writers who are actually pseudonyms for several people. Somehow he pushed out an average of two books a year, and his oeuvre, in the 1990s, made up an astonishing 6.5 percent of all books sold in the UK. In the celestial sphere of UK fantasy authors J.K. Rowling is the sun, Pratchett was the moon, and everyone else merely scattered stars. And yet his books matched or exceeded his more 'experimental' and 'literary' colleagues in terms of subversiveness – both of fantasy genre tropes and overall. Philip Pullman made headlines with The Golden Compass for writing a William Blake-inspired children's series where God is the enemy and must be heroically defeated; three years earlier Pratchett wrote Small Gods, a novel about God being turned into a helpless cranky tortoise who needs to learn to be a better God to be rescued.
[Pratchett was] one of the most 'progressive' writers I can think of, not just in the sense of his political positions matching up with what I'd call progressive but in the sense of believing in the idea of progress, of shattering idols and overturning comforting lies, of subverting tropes at every turn... But all this deconstruction and subversion didn't come across as having to eat your vegetables, the way literary fiction often does. And it didn't come across as a bitter, guilty pleasure either, the way people geek out about the horrifying viciousness of 'low fantasy' worlds like A Song of Ice and Fire's Westeros. Pratchett somehow made his progressive, subversive work as tasty a snack as any of the high fantasy he was subverting. Much of that candy coating was humor – the ability to laugh, as he once argued, being our brain's way of extracting pleasure from the otherwise painful process of recognizing uncomfortable truths..."

http://tcat.tc/1BBtljE


A rather marvellous tribute, "How To Tell If You Are In A Terry Pratchett Novel" – complete with footnotes – by Elyse Martin on The Toast. Warning – may cause tearful laughter:

"You are a wizard and practice magic. Even tourists who do not speak your language know how this will end: badly for you [urinating dog] [urinating dog] [urinating dog].... You are a wizard and do not practice magic, which means you're in no danger at all of going Bursar.[1]... No matter what country you find yourself in, someone always offers you a cutthroat deal on very dubious-looking sausages in buns... It is a dark and stormy night. 'Bugger this for a lark,' you grumble. 'I don't see why we have to meet at night, and even less why we should meet in a storm. It'd be much more sensible to just lunch at the Ritz.'... You've sung every verse of 'All the Little Angels,' which at first seems silly, but then gains significance until the very question 'How do they rise up?' makes you unexpectedly weepy. Soldiers' songs are alike that way: sentimental with naughty bits in, and sung by voices you hear only in your memory... You've seen an old man of no discernible race calmly sweeping the street. You think you may have seen him before, but, then again, you could just be peering down the wrong leg of the Trousers of Time... You have a pet that has, at least once, turned into a human being... You are a human being that has, at least once, turned into a pet... You see little blue men. You haven't been drinking. They are happy to change that for you..."

http://the-toast.net/2015/03/16/how-to-tell-terry-pratchett-novel/

"It's ironic that I have only a vague mental picture of Pratchett, a real actual human, while I can vividly call up images of many of the characters from his Discworld series... No fantasy author but Pratchett would have written multiple novels starring Rincewind, a failed wizard (his hat says 'Wizzard' in sequins) whose main response to danger is to desperately run the other way, a middle-aged alcoholic Night Watchman named Sam Vimes, a seemingly halfwitted but kind young monk in the midst of a horrifying theocracy, or Death, complete with scythe, white horse, black robe, etc.

"Pratchett's books work first because they are funny. Very funny. Laughing out loud inappropriately while reading them on public transit funny. Gripping you with the desire to read the best bits out loud to anyone who happens to be within earshot funny. They work secondly because they are serious... He dug deep into ridiculous comedic characters and found their hard bedrock beliefs. His characters are the pivot points of his novels. They make choices, take stands, try to do the right thing, and thereby save the world, or at least their little bit of it... And then whenever things seem a little too deep, there'll be a rude song about hedgehogs..."

http://bit.ly/1MkSSsC


Obituary/tribute from Gwen Ansell of South Africa's Mail and Guardian:

"Pratchett loved the fantasy genre for its capacity to exercise the 'what if?' mental muscle; he called it 'an exercise bicycle for the mind'. He was also an accomplished wordsmith: his prose was crisp and free from redundancy and the clean lines of his sentences often sang at you from the page. That skill made the comic punch much harder, and made cheeky, challenging ideas – for Pratchett was a lifetime rationalist – accessible to often quite young readers who may have picked up the books initially for their funny covers and intriguing opening lines... Long before JK Rowling (a far less elegant wordsmith) and George RR Martin (a far more conventional world-builder), Pratchett got children – and their parents – across the world reading fantasy without shame and with a great deal of loud laughter..."

http://mg.co.za/article/2015-03-19-the-word-is-out-pratchett-lives


A thank-you, posted by physicist Nicole Yunger Halpern on the Caltech physics blog Quantum Frontiers:

"Terry Pratchett continues to influence my trajectory through physics: This cover has a cameo in a seminar I'm presenting in Maryland this March. Pratchett set many novels on the Discworld, a pancake of a land perched atop four elephants, which balance on the shell of a turtle that swims through space. Discworld wizards quantify magic in units called thaums. Units impressed their importance upon me in week one of my first high-school physics class. We define one meter as 'the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second.' Wizards define one thaum as 'the amount of magic needed to create one small white pigeon or three normal-sized billiard balls.'... Reading about the Discworld since high school, I've wanted to grasp Pratchett's allusions. I've wanted to do more than laugh at them. In Pyramids, Pratchett describes 'ideas that would make even a quantum mechanic give in and hand back his toolbox.' Pratchett's ideas have given me a hankering for that toolbox. Pratchett nudged me toward training as a quantum mechanic. Pratchett hasn't only piqued my curiosity about his allusions. He's piqued my desire to create as he did, to do physics as he wrote. While reading or writing, we build worlds in our imaginations. We visualize settings; we grow acquainted with characters; we sense a plot's consistency or the consistency of a system of magic. We build worlds in our imaginations also when doing and studying physics and math. The Standard Model is a system that encapsulates the consistency of our knowledge about particles. We tell stories about electrons' behaviors in magnetic fields. Theorems' proofs have logical structures like plots'. Pratchett and other authors trained me to build worlds in my imagination. Little wonder I'm training to build worlds as a physicist..."

http://bit.ly/1EmKh4h


In The Guardian, Frank Cottrell Boyce calls Pratchett "the equal of Swift":

"He wasn't imagining an alternative universe; he was reimagining ours. His fantasies sit alongside – and are the equals of – those of Rabelais, Voltaire, Swift, Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams. He's surely our most quotable writer after Shakespeare and Wilde. Granny Weatherwax's definition of sin – 'When you treat people as things' – is all you need to know about ethics. So there will be many commentators today bemoaning his lack of literary prestige, but the fact that he dodged the gongs is part of his power. Whereas all my beloved P G Wodehouses and Philip Pullmans are neatly arranged on the bookshelves, my Pratchetts are strewn under the beds, in the bathrooms, the glove compartments. They have shopping lists, takeaway orders and Scrabble scores scribbled on the fly leaves. They were part of life. You could take a random Discworld to the dentist's knowing that you could open it at any page and be transported. A writer with mere literary prestige would not have inspired my 11-year-old to create a Lego tombstone for him. Rincewind is always looking for something 'better than magic'. Pratchett found something better than literature..."

http://bit.ly/1HV7jO0


Art Marmorstein of South Dakota's Aberdeen News's tribute is eloquent if unnecessarily pessimistic:

"Lose a favorite fantasy writer and you lose also the alternative world that writer has created — in Pratchett's case, Discworld, the magical land that drifts though space on the back of four giant elephants who, in their turn, stand on the back of Great A'tuin the turtle. As Pratchett, who died at age 66, struggled with Alzheimer's, the door to Discworld began to close and, with his death, that world is gone altogether. Gone too are all the characters Pratchett fans regard as, in a way, their friends. We'll hear no more about newspaper editor and publisher William de Word and his search for Truth — or what's true enough. No more stories of con-man turned civic hero Moist Von Lipwig. Gone too is Sam Vimes, the policeman's policeman who conquers the darkest of dark forces only because of his commitment to, without fail, read 'Where's My Cow?' to his young son every day at bedtime. Time to say goodbye to Susan Sto Helit, the teacher who can stop time, walk through walls, and turn even the most obnoxious student into an avid learner. And it's time to say goodbye to Susan's grandfather, Death, the anthromorphic personification who, strangely enough, often serves as champion of life and growth, doing everything he can to stop the Auditors, the bureaucratic-minded devotees of a static, changeless world devoid of individual personalities. Now, of course, Pratchett fans can always go back and reread the novels, but it's not quite the same..."

http://bit.ly/1bDy7Ig


A long, geekish tribute from Matthew Kelly on NZ site Off the Tracks:

"I spent four years at University studying philosophy. During this time I pondered such concepts as whether an infinite universe meant it was logically necessary that all possibilities existed somewhere, whether time stretched backwards without beginning as it presumably does forwards without end, and if I would ever get laid. I blame Terry Pratchett. Like many teenagers of a nerdier disposition, I loved comedy and I loved fantasy. So when friends started talking about this guy who combined the two with a brilliance hitherto unseen, I took a look at these 'Discworld' books. Soon I was chuckling away... Pratchett, a school leaver at 17, saw deeply into the world. His works are crammed with intellectual nuances, sometimes light, sometimes profound, that seep into your brain, challenging, provoking thought. Small Gods is perhaps the most noted in this respect, but across the novels this occurs – the character of Vimes for example is a longform examination of the conflict between moral relativism and absolutism. You might roll your eyes, but read the Watch books with that in mind and see how you feel after. Politics students could do worse than to study the character of the Patrician, leader of the Discworld's largest city, who is at once cruel and wise. His management of people is fascinating, as Pratchett delves into the complexities of the relationships between what is 'right' and what is pragmatic. And all this without mentioning Pratchett's numerous excellent non-Discworld books; Good Omens, Nation, The Bromeliad and more, all showcasing an author of boundless wit and invention stretching out and taking a fresh angle on things, never settling down into mundanity, age and infirmity be damned. Pratchett is gone now, but his humour and his quest for truth and life-principles based on consideration rather than conceit stays with me...."

http://bit.ly/1F7zt7O


A salute from Tallulah Me Grey in the Queensland, Australia-based Morning Bulletin:

"Pratchett's anthropomorphic personification of Death is one of the most human and loveable characters I have read. He loves and feels with more soul than most heroes of literature. He rages with a quiet power rarely seen outside Pratchett's writing... I like to think that Pratchett, like his Cohen the Barbarian, less than politely ignored Death and left to explore the universe. Although, if ever a man could greet Death as an old friend, it would be Sir Terry..."

http://bit.ly/1DhGghD


And one from Shannon Anderson, Arts and Culture Editor of The Argus campus newspaper of Canadian university Lakehead:

"My first experience reading Terry Pratchett was at the age of perhaps nine or ten, when I spent an entire afternoon on my grandmother's chesterfield crying with laughter at The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents. My father's copy of Good Omens (co-authored with a young Neil Gaiman) found me sometime around grade eight or nine, and I spent many happy afternoons and evenings in later high school and early college taking turns reading the Discworld series aloud with my boyfriend... Terry Pratchett's fiction was an examination of human grace and fallibility wrapped up in neatly absurd packages of story. The cliches of fantasy and the creative freedom of fiction allowed him free reign[sic] in to dabble in interests ranging from natural history and mythology to astronomy and neuroscience..."

http://www.theargus.ca/index.php/archives/17805



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04) ...AND THE REST

Here be some bits that deserve their own separate place...

In The Telegraph, Patrick Sawer explores the school-days inspirations that set a certain author's future career in motion:

"Most fans of Pratchett's Discworld series, set on an [imaginary] world on a flat disc balanced on the backs of four elephants which stand in turn on the back of a giant turtle, will recognise the character of Evil Harry Dread from the Last Hero, the 27th novel in the series. What few will know however, is that he was named after, and partly inspired by Harry Ward, who served as headmaster of the Wycombe Technical High School between 1958 and 1983. A year after Mr Ward began his long reign as headmaster a young Terry Pratchett joined the school and by all accounts the two did not have the easiest of relationships. Pratchett later told a newer generation of teachers at the school that he was once chased by Mr Ward and accused of stealing a volume of the Encyclopaedia Britannica he had picked up after the head teacher had himself thrown it out as rubbish.

"The writer had rather more affectionate memories of Stan Betteridge, a former history teacher, which may explain why he used his name in full, also in The Last Hero, as a member of the Guild of Historians in Ankh-Morpork, a city-state which serves as a parody for London or New York. The name of another teacher, Mr Stibbons, who taught technology, appears as Ponder Stibbons, a wizard in the Discworld series with the unfeasibly grand title of Head of Inadvisably Applied Magic, Praelector and Reader in Invisible Writings, the Master of Traditions, the Camerlengo of Unseen University. When Pratchett returned to John Hampden for the first time in the early Nineties he paid tribute to a long-retired member of staff whose work had inspired him and whose photograph then still adorned one of the walls. Pointing to the photograph he said: "She's the one who picked out my homework story and started me off. And I can't remember her name." During his [1992] visit, he also entertained pupils with his memories of his time at the school, including making an omelette in a test tube and of discovering a wonderland of ideas in a bookshop in the nearby village of Penn, including a copy of Milton's Paradise Lost... John Hampden school is planning to launch a fundraising campaign in support of research into Alzheimer's and name its library after the author... that English teacher who inspired him to continue writing? Well, although Pratchett could not remember her name at the time, several of her successors at the school still do. She was a Miss Cambledick, a Discworld name if ever there was one."

The page includes a permitted reproduction of "The Picture, by T. Pratchett L6A (Aged 17)".

http://bit.ly/1Cnkjdr


An unusual remembering in the South Wales Guardian of Pratchett's pre-literary-fame days from journalist Steve Adams, a former co-worker of Pratchett's at the CEGB:

"When I started work one of the first things I was told was to go out and buy an address book for my private contacts. I still use it today. There, amid the changes and crossings out I find Central Electricity Generating Board Press Officer, Terry Pratchett. Not that he was ever in. He admitted later he loathed the job and spent a lot of time as an observer at strikes well away from telephones. No doubt he was also dreaming of Rincewind, Sam Vimes and Death. I swore at the time, but Pratchett made it up with his succession of laugh-out-loud books. Indeed, Terry Pratchett was the first author I found indispensable who was also a contemporary. One job he was involved with was the CEGB's prototype electricity generating windmills on the shores of the Burry Estuary. That was in the days when we owned the technology and greedy politicians had not gifted it to their mates. A big launch saw the involvement of caterers who brought in piles of Caviar. Not, perhaps, the best use of public money, but, by God, it was lovely. Apparently you are supposed to eat a small amount on a cracker, but that must be for economic reasons. Nothing wrong with great dollops in a sandwich, I can confirm. Pratchett at work was pre-Fedora and straggly beard, but I well remember the high, WG Grace voice and the sense of humour. .."

http://bit.ly/1DeyNjw


In The Hollywood Reporter, Alex Ritman talks of "Terry Pratchett's Discworld: The Cinematic Universe That Never Was":

"There were a number of TV adaptations, but Pratchett's growing indifference to Hollywood was hardly a well-kept secret. Several rights were acquired, only to never get beyond the planning stages, or, in the case of 2003's The Wee Free Men – reportedly lined up as Sam Raimi's next project following Spider-Man 3 in 2006 – returned to a delighted Pratchett after he read the script. 'It contained everything that The Wee Free Men actually campaigns against,' he said in 2009. 'Everything about [the book] was the opposite of Disney. But the studio had kind of Disneyfied it, to make it understandable to American filmmakers.' Pratchett later said that the planned cinema version 'would have been rubbish'... aside from Pratchett's own unwillingness to see his fantasy land distorted by Hollywood studio execs, it may well have been the sheer imaginative scale of the universe that proved too much for Discworld to become cinema's next Middle-earth... Such scope, plus a spider's web of intertwined stories that carry from one book to the next and require an almost encyclopedic knowledge of his work in order to appreciate the jokes, possibly pushed Discworld into the realms of the 'unfilmable'... That said, one series that's regularly ranked higher up the unfilmable rankings, The Sandman comics by Neil Gaiman – who collaborated with Pratchett on the 1990 book Good Omens (another failed cinema project, this time with Terry Gilliam) – is now looking closer to film reality after several failed attempts, with Warner Bros. on board. The Dark Knight trilogy's David S. Goyer has penned the screenplay, working closely with Gaiman, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is set to direct. If The Sandman can be done, could a Discworld movie work as well?..."

http://bit.ly/1Ns9dXD


Lastly, Sir Pterry's delightful and helpful "Advice to Booksellers", a charming essay advising on the care (and feeding) of authors at signing sessions, has been republished in The Bookseller. Reading it will make you smile, so do!

"A guest should get something further up the scale upon arrival than 'wait here and I'll go and find someone' or, possibly, 'Oh, was it today?' Remember: an author, no matter how successful, is under that cool exterior as twitchy as a shaved monkey, and will be pathetically grateful for a friendly smile and (assuming that they've been good and arrived well in time for the event) a swift stroll to...a chair in some office, preferably, rather than a stool in the stock room, where they have...a nice cup of tea and can loosen up a bit. I generally use this time to sign orders and stock, and listen to any scurrilous gossip. Authors will always appreciate hearing how much worse other authors' signings went (but if devilment overcomes you and you praise a known rival, you can actually see certain muscles in the author's face freeze up. This is great fun. But don't do it.)... Some shops like to put the author near the doors. This is a problem on winter tours – I've frozen before now, so try to put the table out of the worst of the icy blast. Shops in malls sometimes get the author to sign out in the mall. This is probably fine for a 'media' author or an author who can definitely draw a big queue, but it's hell on wheels for the rest. Besides, it's always too noisy and you get a Greek chorus of Uzis – the little old ladies that stand around glaring at the luckless author and muttering 'Uzi? Uzi den? Izeeonnatelly? Uzi?'... Since many signings take place over the lunch hour, a snack is appreciated before or after the signing. A sandwich is fine, although the author may well have been living on sarnies for weeks and would be pathetically grateful for a jacket spud or something exotic. Haughty demands for smoked salmon and champagne – well, that's up to you. I can't help you there, but you will probably be prosecuted if you hit anyone with a fire extinguisher. Authors have their likes and dislikes and these get magnified as shops pass on the information. According to rumour I demand sushi, Australian Chardonnay, kumquats, chocolate-coated coffee beans, those little blue things in Liquorice Allsorts, and gin and tonic. No, it's all a mystery to me, too. Some shops go out of their way to put on a good spread (so's the staff can fall on it when the author has gone) and this is good PR, but in truth authors tend to eat lightly on tour because their stomach is knotted into a figure eight..."

[Editor's note: Advice to Booksellers was written in 1999 for Ottakar's, published in A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected Non-fiction (Doubleday), and reprinted with the kind permission of Colin Smythe.]

http://www.thebookseller.com/blogs/advice-booksellers

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05) MORE ON "SENDING HOME"

Steven Poole, in The Guardian:

"Pratchett's 33rd Discworld novel, Going Postal, tells of the creation of an internet-like system of communication towers called 'the clacks'. When John Dearheart, the son of its inventor, is murdered, a piece of code is written called 'GNU John Dearheart' to echo his name up and down the lines. 'G' means that the message must be passed on, 'N' means 'not logged', and 'U' means the message should be turned around at the end of a line. (This was also a realworld tech joke: GNU is a free operating system, and its name stands, with recursive geek humour, for 'GNU's not Unix'.) The code causes Dearheart's name to be repeated indefinitely throughout the system, because: 'A man is not dead while his name is still spoken.' What better way to remember the beloved inventor of this fictional system, then, than 'GNU Terry Pratchett'? Reddit users have designed a code that anyone with basic webcoding knowledge can embed into their own websites (anyone without basic webcoding knowledge can use the plugins for Wordpress and other platforms). The code is called the XClacksOverhead, and it sets a header reading 'GNU Terry Pratchett'. 'If you had to be dead,' thinks a character in Going Postal, 'it seemed a lot better to spend your time flying between the towers than lying underground.' And so Pratchett is, in a way.

"In the past, literary tributes have taken more visible form. Shortly after the death of Voltaire, a bust of him was put on display, drawing great crowds eager to see his face. And thousands of peasants lined the streets to see Tolstoy's funeral procession. Statues, of course, were long the memorial of choice: the great Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa is honoured with a bronze effigy sitting outside his favourite cafe, the Brasileira in Lisbon. But the modern world enables a crowd-generated homage of unique subtlety. GNU Terry Pratchett is not fan graffiti, plastering the author's name all over the public-facing internet – the tribute is invisible unless you know how to look..."

http://bit.ly/1DyttXV

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06) DISCWORLD GAMES NEWS

...in a way:

"Frontier Developments has paid tribute to the late author Terry Pratchett by adding a new space station to Elite: Dangerous called Pratchett's Disc. The station was added with little fanfare, noted only by a single, short sentence in the Wings Update 1.2.05 patch notes: 'Added Pratchett's Disc starport.' But Executive Producer Michael Brookes told Eurogamer that the author had a great impact on many people at the studio. 'At Frontier we have a great many Pratchett fans on staff and we were all saddened to learn of his passing,' he said. 'The sentiment was reflected by our community so we felt it would be right to remember him in Elite: Dangerous.'"

http://www.pcgamer.com/terry-pratchett-tribute-added-to-elite-dangerous/

More about the game:

http://www.elitedangerous.com/

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07) ALZHEIMER'S NEWS

In CambridgeNews, consultant psychiatrist Dr Ben Underwood pays tribute to the work Sir Terry Pratchett did to raise awareness of Alzheimer's and to support funding of research into the disease.

"I won't forget Sir Terry Pratchett. Not just for his writing, but for his efforts in the field in which I work. I co-ordinate dementia research trials which now involve about 240 people from across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. With my colleagues from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, along with those from Cambridge University, I believe we are now at a point that if the trials prove successful, we could see a major breakthrough within the next five years.

"When Sir Terry was first diagnosed with Alzheimer's, even though it was only eight years ago, not enough was known about dementia-related conditions. But we've come a long way in that time – and Sir Terry more than played his part. Firstly, he went public with his diagnosis. That was incredibly brave, but also incredibly helpful. Whenever someone in the public eye talks about their mental health it gives confidence to other people to talk their own issues. Sir Terry certainly started a new conversation about dementia-related conditions, while also proving it's not just older people who are affected, after all he was in his 50s at the time. Importantly, by continuing to write and appear on television, he showed even with his diagnosis you can still live a very full life.

"The statistics don't make for great reading. The Alzheimer's Society says that by 2015 there will be 850,000 people with dementia in the UK, while Alzheimer's Research UK states that Alzheimer's and other dementias affect nearly 7,500 people in Cambridgeshire alone. However, here's where Sir Terry played a great role. By speaking out, he forced it onto the Government's agenda. Because he was in the public eye, his celebrity ensured that research would be taken more seriously..."

http://bit.ly/1IoqTT2


...and if the following turns out to be as promising as it looks so far, this is a direct result of Sir Pterry.s advocacy for dementia research:

"A new drug for Alzheimer’s appears to have shown some benefit in people who were given it in the very earliest stage of the disease, say scientists. Experts were cautious about the results of the trial of an antibody known as aducanumab, which involved just 166 patients. But the dearth of drugs to halt or even slow the progress of dementia – of which Alzheimer’s is the most common type – means that any positive results will be greeted with enthusiasm.

"In the trial, conducted primarily to ensure the drug was safe and had no serious side-effects, brain scans showed a reduction of amyloid plaque. Accumulation of amyloid plaques is thought to be one of the major causes of Alzheimer's.
The higher the dose of drug the patient was given, the greater the reduction. Tests also showed that those people who took the drug had a slower rate of mental decline than those who did not – although the trial was not set up primarily to see whether there was any effect on cognition. 'These are very promising early results, which not only demonstrate the safety of this treatment but also suggest it may hold benefits in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease,' said Dr Eric Karran, director of research at Alzheimer's Research UK. 'While many previous anti-amyloid therapies have failed to meet their goals, these preliminary findings back up research suggesting that treatments targeting amyloid will need to be given early in the disease. Further data from this trial is yet to be reported, and it will be important to see this data as well as results from much larger trials before we can understand how effective this treatment may be'..."

http://bit.ly/1B6c2rI

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08) DISCWORLD PLAYS NEWS

The show *does* go on...

8.1 WITCHES ABROAD IN CARDIFF (APRIL)

Monstrous Productions are back with their newest Discworld production, Witches Abroad, featuring a new script by Renoir.

"Hello everybody! We are incredibly pleased to say that our total raised since performing Carpe Jugulum in June 2013 now stands at over £7200! Our biggest thanks go to everyone who has seen our shows since then, which also include Mort in January 2014, and Wyrd Sisters in November 2014. We couldn't do this without your support. But we aren't done yet! This April we will be joining the three witches again as they go galavanting to Genua in Witches Abroad. When Magrat Garlick recieves an unexpected gift from a recently deceased Fairy Godmother, she jumps on her broomstick to grant some wishes. Of course, Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg join her, because they have much more experience in having no experience in such things."

When: 8th-11th April 2015
Venue: the Gate Arts Centre, Keppoch St, Cardiff
Time: 7.30pm (doors open 7pm); Saturday matinee 2.30pm (doors open 2pm)
Tickets: £8 (concessions £6). To book, go to Monstrous Productions' Fikket page at http://7889269b08cd.fikket.com/
To purchase tickets by email: monstrousproductions2012@gmail.com You can also get tickets by messaging their Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/MonstrousProductionsTheatreCompany – or going directly to their website.

And further to Monstrous Productions' fundraising for Alzheimer's: "We have always taken pride in our poster designs, and Amy (the Big Boss) has been eager from our conception to create a series of posters that look great side by side, and give us a real identity. Which is why we are selling all our posters, from Monstrous Regiment all the way through to the Witches Abroad poster you see in front of you, as a set! Take a look at our Facebook page to see how magnificent a family they all make, and to find out how to make them your very own."

An image of their excellent poster: http://bit.ly/1Ns6dKV

http://www.monstrousptc.com/


8.2 WYRD SISTERS IN CHELMSFORD (APRIL)

The Chelmsford Theatre Workshop are presenting their production of Wyrd Sisters next month. "Our next production is linked to our long history of producing Discworld plays – and we've a treat in store for Pratchett fans and theatre lovers alike this April... Wyrd Sisters is a cornerstone of the Discworld series and features some of CTW's favourite characters including Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg. In this brilliantly different take on the story of Macbeth, the witches find themselves entangled in a web of murder and betrayal. We recommend booking in advance, as Discworld plays at CTW have a habit of selling very well – and very quickly!"

When: 15th-18th and 22nd-25th April 2015
Venue: the Old Court Theatre, 233 Springfield Road, Chelmsford
Time: 7.45 pm
Tickets: £9 (concessions £8). Tickets can be purchased from the Civic Theatre (phone 01245 606505), or online at
http://www.chelmsford.gov.uk/how-book-tickets-chelmsford-theatres-0 – or go directly to http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase and scroll down to your desired date (third column), then click on the Buy Tickets button. A £1 transaction fee per ticket applies t online purchases.

For more information, go to:
https://chelmsfordtheatreworkshop.wordpress.com/


8.3 ...AND WYRD SISTERS IN EYNSFORD, KENT (MAY)

The Riverside Players will be staging their comedy-centric production of Wyrd Sisters in May 2015. "This hilarious tale will be brought to life by our talented cast and crew, and our superb raked seating gives all members of the audience a perfect view of the action."

When: 8th, 9th, 15th & 16th May 2015
Venue: Eynsford Village Hall, High Street, Eynsford, Kent DA4 0AA
Time: Friday 8th & 15th, 7.45pm; Saturday 9th & 16th, 3pm & 7.45pm
Tickets: Adult £11, Concessions £9 (under 16s, over 60s and students with NUS card), Family £35 (2 adults and 2 concessions); Group Discount: buy 10 tickets, get one of them free! Applies to Adult and Concession tickets only. Discount will be applied at payment stage.

There is a Discount Code for buying advance tickets: 'ESME15' until 23rd April 2015

www.riversideplayers.co.uk
email: enquiries@riversideplayers.co.uk
telephone 07704279948

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

09) MORE IMAGES

A cartoon tribute to the life of Pratchett, by art collective Scriberia:
http://www.scriberia.co.uk/storage/journal/scribituaries/pratchett.jpg

Where it all began – GNU Terry Pratchett (note the date, third down in the right-hand column):
http://img.127001.org/img/frymaster/smoking-gnu.PNG

A lovely photo of The Author, Neil Gaiman and producer Dirk Maggs during the recording of the Good Omens radio play:
http://bit.ly/1bDqRfA

An action replay of sorts – the photo-heavy October 2012 piece by Louise Haywood-Schiefer, in which she described the delights of going hat-shopping with Sir Pterry:
http://lhschiefer.com/sir-terry-pratchett/

They never can be, you know... (photo from Caryn Laycock):
http://bit.ly/1NnANFu

...and finally, just because – I think Sir Pterry would have approved of this photo, since it shows two creatures he held dear in his writings, having a "Daww!" moment:
http://bit.ly/1CkQ1bv

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10) LATE BREAKING NEWS, AND CLOSE

And as the show goes on, so do the conventions. Especially Nullus Anxietas V, which will be held in Sydney next month (10th-12th April) at the Novotel in Parramatta, New South Wales:

"Nullus Anxietas V will be a poignant and bittersweet affair, filled with laughter and also tears. This is where fans and friends can come together to share their memories of Sir Terry and the Discworld. At NAV we will have a Memori-wall available, where fans can all pin pictures and photos and anecdotes of their memories of Sir Terry*. And, as we recognise that there are many reasons why fans may not be able to be present at the Convention, we invite all Australian Discworld Convention fans to post us your photos and your messages for us to pin on the board for you. At the end of the convention, these photos and memories will be collected and presented to Rob Wilkins, Sir Terry's long-time friend and business manager. Come. Laugh. Cry. Smile. Share. Remember. *(Please only bring / send paper items, we don't have any capacity to receive floral tributes or artwork.)

"We are pleased to announce that, as we have received many enquiries since the close of online ticket sales, we will be offering tickets at the door for Nullus Anxietas V. Since the sad news on 12th March, and with our online ticket sales closing so soon thereafter, we have received many requests from people wishing to attend, to commemorate Sir Terry and to celebrate the Discworld. We on the organising committee feel that to exclude people from coming to pay respects and sharing their memories of Terry with likeminded fans would be counter-productive to how we are all feeling and as a result we are introducing day and weekend passes that can be purchased at the door. So please, if you thought you couldn’t afford the full three days, or if you have changed your mind about not attending since on-line ticket sales cut off, please stop by Novotel Sydney Parramatta on any one of the con dates (April 10th-12th) and purchase a one, two or three day pass. See the membership page for information on door tickets: http://ausdwcon.org/convention/membership/

"Pass Prices are listed below and if you like you may download and prefill a registration form to bring with you to the con to save yourself some time at the door:

https://ausdwcon.org/media/uploads/docs/nav_onsite_registration.pdf

Full 3 day pass – $160 concession OR $200 Adult
2 day pass - $120 concession OR $160 Adult
Friday ONLY - $60 concession OR $80 Adult
Saturday ONLY - $75 concession OR $100 Adult
Sunday ONLY - $60 concession OR $80 Adult

We suggest that you look at the List of Events on the website so, if you are planning on buying a day ticket, you pick the day/s that is best for you. There is a LOT going on and not many events are repeated on different days:

https://ausdwcon.org/media/uploads/docs/nav_programm_of_events.pdf

Please note that any of the Saturday passes DO NOT include entry to the Gala dinner.

If you have any queries please Email Gabby at Membership@ausdwcon.org

http://ausdwcon.org/convention/programme/
http://ausdwcon.org/about/faq/

https://www.facebook.com/Ausdwcon
https://www.facebook.com/events/1570830383148183/
https://twitter.com/NullusAnxietasV

And a few more bits...

Hedgehogs: with the UK population of hedgehogs dwindling at a terrible rate, the news of a new wild sanctuary is heartening. Now the nation's first large-scale hedgehog sanctuary, funded by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, has been opened by the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust in the West Midlands. "The aim is for it to be the model for hedgehog conservation across the whole of Britain. In the 1950s, 36 million of the animals used to snuffle in UK gardens. There may be less than a million now... the conservation area stretches across a nature reserve, a public park and the surrounding streets. More than 100 'footprint tunnels' have been created to show where the hedgehogs have been. Not only will they be placed in the wide green spaces, but also in the gardens of willing local people. Hidden cameras are being installed and volunteer 'wildlife guardians' will help to protect the spaces..."

Read all about it at http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31913453

Orangutans: new research has shown that wild orangutans use their hands to modify their voices in a way that demonstrates the possible origins of spoken language. Apparently they are the only apes who use this technique. A fascinating article can be read at http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31913136

Also, do read the tribute from the Orangutan Foundation. The page includes an embedded link for re-watching the wonderful 2013 Pratchett documentary, '"Facing Extinction":

"Sir Terry's love for orangutans was apparent from his famous and playful characterization of 'The Librarian' in his Discworld book series, leading him to make two profound and inspiring films with the Orangutan Foundation..."

http://www.orangutan.org.uk/


...and fanfiction: several readers sent in links to fan tributes written in the style of Discworld. Here be a couple of links.

A long one from Gil Jaysmith:
http://on.fb.me/1G0fWcx

A short one from Rastaban/Eltanin:
http://bit.ly/1O7YPra

And the show will go on, next month.

– Annie Mac

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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