Wossname – January 2022 – Main issue
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wossnameWossname
Newsletter of the Klatchian Foreign Legion
January 2022 (Volume 25, Issue 1, Post 1)
********************************************************************
WOSSNAME is a free publication offering news, reviews, and all the other stuff-that-fits pertaining to the works 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.
********************************************************************
Editor in Chief: Annie Mac
News Editor: Vera P
Newshounds: Mogg, Sir J of Croydon Below, the Shadow, Mss C, Alison not Aliss
Staff Writers: Asti, Pitt the Elder, Evil Steven Dread, Mrs W-J
Staff Technomancer: Jason Parlevliet
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 OF THE MONTH
02) EDITOR'S LETTER
03) ODDS AND SODS
04) DISCWORLD PLAYS NEWS
05) DISCWORLD MEETING GROUPS NEWS
06) ROUNDWORLD TALES: KEN THE CLEVER LIBRARIAN
07) IMAGES OF THE MONTH
08) CLOSE
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01) QUOTES OF THE MONTH
"Of all the dead authors in the world, Terry Pratchett is the most alive."
– John Lloyd, a bit of a writing legend himself
"We couldn’t be more delighted to have such a fitting tribute to Terry. When the first finished audio files arrived at the Chapel – Terry’s writing room and centre of the Pratchett universe – I listened at full volume until the stone walls rattled and am beyond overjoyed with the results … Every single voice does justice to the wit, warmth and unique genius of Terry’s storytelling."
– Rob Wilkins, delighted with the new Discworld audiobooks
"A Life with Footnotes captures the genius that was Terry Pratchett, with warmth, poignancy, and great good humour - and with no small amount of love. It's an intimate, engaging and revealing portrait of one of the UK’s most loved and most missed authors, that only Rob Wilkins could have written. It is a masterclass in great biographical writing."
– Transworld managing director Larry Finlay
"As many of you know, I fell into Discworld backwards, as if I'd been leaning on a rickety old door in a walled garden and I'd suddenly found myself in a magical kingdom full of snow, fauns and benevolent lions. I hadn't meant to be here, but I'm jolly glad that I am."
– Stephen Briggs, in his introduction to The Ultimate Discworld Companion
"For the past three decades my work has been devoted almost exclusively to Discworld and my archive is expansive... there has been much rummaging in cupboards and extensive searching on hard drives for long-lost images."
– Paul Kidby, ibid.
"Whilst we don’t have Vimes any more, we do have Jack and Dad would be proud to see his work used in such a way."
– Rhianna Pratchett in the Guardian, approving of Jack Monroe's use of the Vimes Boots Index
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
02) LETTER FROM YOUR EDITOR
Welcome back, O Readers, to the Year of the Lachrymating Leveret!
It’s always good to see Sir Pterry references in the mainstream press, but this time it’s more than that – the Vimes Boots Index has come to Roundworld! Food writer and anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe received permission from the Pratchett estate to use Sam Vimes’ Theory of Boots as a more realistic price index metric than the standard government one. If you’ve never heard of Jack Monroe – and in particular, if you’re finding it harder than usual to make ends meet in these strange pandemic times – you’d do well to get your Google on. Monroe has over the past decade become a hero to every hard-up single parent, every penniless student scraping by in a share-house, and indeed, everyone who wants to make their food budget go further. Now this news has been picked up by press and blog sites all around Roundworld, so an even wider public will learn what we Discworld fans have known for years, and who knows, maybe this will spread the word about the Pratchett oeuvre wider yet...
And now, on with the show...
– Annie Mac, Editor
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03) ODDS AND SODS
3.0 THE VIMES BOOTS INDEX COMES TO ROUNDWORLD
More details about the Vimes Boots Index, from Alison Flood in the Guardian:
"Monroe was prompted to create her index after inflation jumped to 5.4% last week, and she found herself ‘infuriate[d]’ that the index (the consumer price index or CPI) used for this calculation ‘grossly underestimates the real cost of inflation as it happens to people with the least’. She laid out how the prices of ‘value’ product ranges in supermarkets had soared over the last decade – rice in her local supermarket had increased in price from 45p for a kilogram bag last year, to £1 for 500g, a 344% increase – and how the number of value products has shrunk. She was soon working with economists, charities and analysts to compile her own index. ‘One,’ she wrote in the Observer, ‘that will document the disappearance of the budget lines and the insidiously creeping prices of the most basic versions of essential items at the supermarket’ and ‘serve as an irrefutable snapshot of the reality experienced by millions of people’. In a tweet on Wednesday, Monroe announced that the index is already starting to make a difference, as the Office for National Statistics has admitted that ‘one inflation rate doesn’t fit all’. She wrote: Delighted to be able to tell you that theons have just announced that they are going to be changing the way they collect and report on the cost of food prices and inflation to take into consideration a wider range of income levels and household circumstances, using the hashtag #VimesBootsIndex. The index, Monroe said, is named in honour of Pratchett’s creation Sam Vimes, who in the Discworld novel Men at Arms lays out the ‘Sam Vimes “Boots” theory of socio-economic unfairness’..."
https://bit.ly/3GeYhza
And here be an interesting response from Peter Johnstone of St John’s College, Cambridge about the Boots Theory's origins. Given that Sir Pterry was well known to be a picker-up of inconsidered trifles and a childhood library hound, he might just have seen this in some newspaper morgue or other...
"Paul Jennings expressed exactly the same idea in his Observer column Oddly Enough in 1954: 'You find, for instance, that you have got to have a new pair of shoes, so you rush into a shop and buy some; some cheap ones, and they are worn out in three months. But if you were on one of the inner platforms [Jennings’ term for the rich] you would go calmly into a rather splendid shop and buy the sort of shoes that are bought by men on leave in London from Africa, or down from their Scottish moorland estates. Twenty years later these men are still wearing the same shoes, they photograph them with mud on, they write letters which may be inspected at the head office of the shoe firm. But the point is that after these twenty years, inner circle men have spent far less on shoes than outside men.' I don’t know whether Terry Pratchett was aware of this article when he wrote Men at Arms, but the similarity is striking."
https://bit.ly/3o7ySAY
3.1 AT LAST, THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY
"Transworld Publishers are thrilled to announce the publication of Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes, the official biography of Sir Terry Pratchett, written by Rob Wilkins, his former assistant, friend and now head of the author’s literary estate. At the time of his death in 2015, Terry was working on his finest story yet – his own... Following his untimely death from Alzheimer’s disease, the mantle of completing Terry Pratchett’s memoir was passed to Rob. Having known and worked alongside Terry as his personal assistant and business manager for over two decades, Rob is in the unique position of being able to offer both a personal and professional insight into the beloved writer’s public and private lives, as well as highlighting the origins and evolution of Terry’s extraordinarily successful creations. Drawing on his own extensive memories, as well as those of Terry’s family, close friends, fans and the colleagues who worked with him over the years, Rob recounts Terry’s story - from his early childhood to the literary phenomenon that his Discworld series became. It also chronicles Terry’s later years, his championing of environmental and humanitarian causes, and how he met and coped with the challenges that ‘The Embuggerance’ of Alzheimer’s brought with it...”
https://dunmanifestin.com/biography/
3.2 AUDIOBOOKS NEWS
The new audiobook adaptation of Good Omens is now available! David Tennant and Michael Sheen are back as Crowley and Aziraphale, of course, and the remainder of the all-star cast includes Katherine Kingsley as Anathema Device), Arthur Darvill as Newt Pulsifer, Peter Forbes as Shadwell, Gabrielle Glaister doing double duty as Madame Tracy and Agnes Nutter). The new Good Omens can be bought from Audible: https://adbl.co/3ABZCyK
And speaking of new audio releases, the first batch of the 21st century Discworld novel re-reads will be released on the 28th of April this year! Titles include
Equal Rites, Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Carpe Jugulum and Maskerade, all read by Indira Varma, and a very special treat – Small Gods, read by none other than Andy Serkis.
3.3 ABOMINABLE SNOW BABY REVIEWS
Although The Abominable Snow Baby rated well when shown, there seemed to be a dearth of press reviews – and the only one of the “majors” that seemed to have reviewed it was far from impressed.
By Benji Wilson for the Telegraph:
"Of course, The Abominable Snowbaby is aimed at kids first and foremost, and they won’t give two snowmen about things that happened more than two Fortnite sessions ago, but even standing alone Snowbaby feels a little light – as if the Pratchett name alone should have us pinned to our sofas… It’s never easy to define warmth or charm on screen, but drama is always at its least charming when it's striving to charm. I think the graphic style of The Abominable Snowbaby is meant to look more angular and less cuddly than, for example, the Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler adaptations that have been a feature of the BBC Christmas for the last decade. But the upshot is that the Snowbaby itself looks bland..."
https://bit.ly/3KVxThe
A far less dismissive review, by Ivan Radford on Vodzilla:
The half-hour film whisks us away to the town of Blackberry, where the residents find themselves snowed in. The disarray is heightened by the appearance of a 14-foot abominable snowman, which is immediately shunned by the residents out of fear. Only one person shows it compassion: the no-nonsense Granny (Juliet Walters), who inspires her grandson, Albert (Hugh Dancy), to show kindness and courage too. It soon becomes apparent (if the title doesn’t give it away) that the snowman isn’t quite what it appears – and that even the most intimidating, unfamiliar figure comes with its own family and loved ones. That humanising message has a more timely resonance than, say The Snowman, with which this will inevitably be compared – and that modern edge helps offset the other areas where it struggles to live up to the other “Snow-noun” legend, whose shadow looms large. That’s mainly in terms of the animation, which is cute but feels a little too cleanly cut for such a fuzzy, furry tale. But the star of the show, undoubtedly, is Terry Pratchett, whose wordplay shines through the vocal talents of the cast – Walters’ fearless biddy is a delight, while David Harewood’s narration has a gorgeous gravitas and warmth..."
https://bit.ly/3KRKJNm
A long review-cum-backstory, by Pratchett biographer Marc Burrows for Heyuguys:
"Terry Pratchett’s The Abominable Snow Baby is the latest in a long line of prestige Christmas Day animations commissioned by Channel 4, following last year’s lovely Quentin Blake’s The Clown and going right back to 1982 and The Snowman. It’s a gorgeous piece of work, delightfully silly, satisfyingly British and beautifully animated, the tone of the humour and the visual style, like a classic Beano comic strip come to life... Snow Baby adapts a short story written, not by the award-winning Professor Sir Terry Pratchett, OBE, at one time the best-selling living author in the English language, and the creator of the (flat) world-conquering Discworld series … but by a twenty-year-old trainee journalist working on a local paper. In 1965, aged just seventeen, Pratchett dropped out of school to begin an apprenticeship at the Bucks Free Press, the local weekly which served his particular corner of south Buckinghamshire. Almost immediately he was given one of the least popular jobs on the paper – writing the ‘Children’s Circle’ column, under the pseudonym ‘Uncle Jim’. The column consisted of a list of readers’ birthdays and a short bedtime story, serialised over several weeks. Prior to Pratchett’s time the stories had focussed on the fairly insipid sub-Beatrix Potter adventures of characters called things like ‘Boo Boo Bunny’, ‘Frances Frog’ and ‘Peter Piper the Stoat’. The young Pratchett was having none of that...
"Snow Baby is based on a story printed across four weeks starting in December 1968, and is a textbook example, full of silly turns of phrase, puns and bold, quickly sketched but memorable characters like Granny, voiced here – rather perfectly – by Julie Walters. 'The last home I expected them to ever find would be on Christmas Day,' says [Rob] Wilkins, 'I mean that in a good way, it’s just it was completely unexpected. Terry always wanted the Doctor Who slot on the telly. That’s the one thing that he wanted – seven-thirty on a Saturday night, sitting down with your mum and dad having fish and chips and angel delight for pudding, and I think we’ve given him better than that...'..."
https://bit.ly/3AGouoU
Marc Burrows is the author of The Magic of Terry Pratchett. It's quite a decent bit of well-researched work. You can buy it directly from him here:
https://bit.ly/3oaItaa
3.4 MERCH CORNER
* Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes!
We've more than half the year to wait yet, but pre-ordering is possible now...
"Drawing on his own extensive memories, along with those of Terry’s family, friends, fans and colleagues, Rob recounts Terry's extraordinary story to be published later this year on September 29th. Each copy from the Discworld Emporium will be signed by Rob, and is available to pre-order today. A Life with Footnotes is the book some whippersnappers in the Discworld fandom have waited a literal lifetime for; the life and times of our favourite author written indelibly on the page to be treasured for lifetimes to come...”
Each hardcover copy of Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes is priced at £25 and will be released on 29th September 2022. For more info, and to pre-order, go to:
https://bit.ly/3rYSSai
* Ook beanie!
It’s still cold outside (unless you live in Fourecks or the Land of Fog), so this will keep you warm at the same time as keeping people informed about your love for the Librarian!
“Keep warm with our orange beanie featuring the Librarian’s 'Ook!', meaning yes, where as 'Eek' tends to mean no. For this design we use Beechfield Original Cuffed Beanie. One Size. Double layer knit. Cuffed design. 100% soft touch acrylic.”
Each Ook beanie is priced at £10. For more info, and to order, go to:
https://bit.ly/3o7yKBD
3.5 GOOD OMENS 2 NEWS
From Molly Templeton, on Tor.com:
"As if it wasn’t already a delightful surprise that Amazon’s adaptation of Good Omens will continue, it turns out that in season two, we’ll get to spend a little extra time in the world of Crowley and Aziraphale. In an update on his blog this morning, Neil Gaiman announced that the currently-filming season will have three 'minisodes,' which he describes as 'stories that begin and end within a larger episode, ones that dive into history.' There will be three minisodes: one written by novelist Cat Clarke; one by Good Omens 2 co-writer John Finnemore; and one by the collaborative writing team of Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman. It’s not entirely clear how or where we’ll be able to watch the minisodes—but since this is a Prime Video series, it might be safe to assume that they’ll pop up as part of the streamer’s 'X-Ray' content, like the Expanse shorts running alongside this season. Finnemore's story is set in biblical times, and Clarke’s in Victorian times. The short by Dyson and Nyman is set in London during the blitz...”
https://bit.ly/3Ga3Oaa
Good Omens 2 is in production now. There have been many "reveals" regarding additions to the cast, often conflicting, and some actors are returning to the series but in different roles, so here is the cast as far as Wossname can tell at the moment:
David Tennant
Michael Sheen
Michael McKean
Miranda Richardson
Jon Hamm
Nina Sosanya
Doon Mackichan
Dame Sian Phillips
Derek Jacobi
Mark Gatiss
Steve Pemberton
Reece Shearsmith
Niamh Walsh
Tim Downie
Pete Firman
Andi Osho
Alex Norton
Maggie Service
Gloria Obianyo
Liz Carr
Quelin Sepulveda
Shelley Conn
Abigail Lawrie
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04) DISCWORLD PLAYS NEWS
Nothing to see here this month. Come on, Roundworlders, let's get those Discworld plays back on the boards!
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05) DISCWORLD MEETING GROUPS NEWS
The Broken Drummers, “London’s Premier Unofficially Official Discworld Group” (motto “Nil percussio est”)
BrokenDrummers@gmail.com or nicholls.helen@yahoo.co.uk or join their Facebook group at https://bit.ly/3jtYLGo
“The Gathering of the Loonies (Wincanton chapter)”
https://www.facebook.com/groups/373578522834654/
The Broken Vectis Drummers broken_vectis_drummers@yahoo.co.uk
The Wincanton Omnian Temperance Society (WOTS) meets at Wincanton’s famous Bear Inn when social gatherings are possible.
The Northern Institute of the Ankh-Morpork and District Society of Flatalists
http://www.discworldstamps.co.uk/forum/
* FOURECKSIAN DISCWORLD GROUPS
Adelaide – City of Small Gods Terry Pratchett Fan Club
http://www.cityofsmallgods.org.au
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cityofsmallgods
https://discord.gg/3RVzsyJ
Regular events: Monthly dinners (when permitted!), Monthly crafty evenings on discord, regular book discussions, and occasional board game days. We also hold special events sometimes, such as picnics, Quiz Nights and outings to see Discworld plays.
Melbourne – Victorian Discworld Klatch
https://2022.ausdwcon.org/fan-clubs/melbourne
https://www.facebook.com/groups/VictorianDiscworldKlatch
https://discord.com/invite/w5KPAaYH
Regular events: Monthly gatherings, board game days, crafternoons, movies, picnics, and more. We are also regulars at the various pop culture events around Victoria.
Sydney – Mended Drummers and Western Drummers
Mended Drummers: https://www.facebook.com/groups/downunderdrummers
Western Drummers: https://www.facebook.com/groups/100376433635355
Both groups get together monthly to chat over a few drinks, with subjects ranging far and wide, have a Discworld themed quiz and generally enjoy the company of fellow Discworld fans.
Brisbane – Pratchett Partisans
https://www.facebook.com/groups/pratchettpartisans
Join us in and around Brisbane for regular Pratchett-inspired nights including Dining Around the Disc, board games arvos, Pratchett Picnics and Discworld Discussions. We also hold special events once or twice a year like themed parties, scavenger hunts and cocktail nights. Many of us also attend opening night of Brisbane Arts Theatre’s Pratchett Productions in costume.
Perth – Treacle Mining Corporation
https://www.facebook.com/groups/PerthDrummers
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06) REVIEW: THE ULTIMATE DISCWORLD COMPANION
By Annie Mac
What, yet another Discworld companion? But why? There are already four of them, aren't there?
Ah, but none of those are ultimate.
Well, actually, The Ultimate Discworld Companion isn't ultimate either, strictly speaking – it doesn't contain *every* minor character ever mentioned in every one of the novels, novel ancillaries, diaries, almanacs and whatnot, although many from the earlier versions of the Companion have indeed found their way back in – but at this juncture it's as ultimate an official Companion as we're likely to get. And there are two reasons why this new Companion deserves to be added to every Discworld fan's bookshelves: two smoking barrels of Stephen Briggs' amusing, often sting-in-the-tail descriptions, and a fantastic, all-singing, all-dancing collection of Paul Kidby's Disc art.
The latter is what makes The Ultimate Discworld Companion truly worth acquiring, no matter how many other versions of the Companion you might already own. Not only are there numerous Kidby illustrations scattered throughout the book's 423 pages, but they are a combination of much-beloved familiar ones, ones that have only been previously seen by those who bought the various Discworld almanacs, and ones that have never been seen until now – and most importantly, most of the familiar ones have been subtly updated in delightful ways. Somehow, by the addition of tiny details here and there (quite possibly by magic), Mr Kidby has turned his famous portraits of major Discworld characters into believable *people* who could easily be taken for photographs (or at least, iconographs), and has done so without losing the original visual 'feel' of each one. All of Nanny Ogg's witchy power and cheerful debauchery has come to life, as has Granny Weatherwax's steely determination and strange majesty. Fred Colon has become a living, breathing man, no longer a caricature, and while Nobby Nobbs still looks Nobby Nobbs-like, he also now looks human enough that he might even get away with leaving his certificate at home. Sam Vimes is no longer Clint Eastwood nor Pete Postlethwaite but simply Sam Vimes; Carrot is now a perfect clean-cut action hero but with true intelligence peeping though his not quite simple expression; and as for Angua, one can positively *feel* her uncertainty about living amongst humans – and if a proper full-budget Discworld film ever gets made, all I can say is that I hope the casting department has Carey Mulligan's agent's phone number. In fact, you could spend hours playing Guess the Inspiration when it comes to many of these illustrations (Ptraci is so Uma Thurman it almost hurts; put an eyepatch on Baron Saturday and you're most of the way to Samuel L Jackson's Nick Fury; Sally von Humpeding has much more than a hint of Anne Hathaway; and so on).
When I first heard about The Ultimate Discworld Companion, I was unimpressed. Suspicious, even. Given the number of "look what we found behind the settee" releases and re-releases and re-re-releases that have popped up in the years since our favourite author crossed the black desert, I wondered if this was a way to wring more cash out of the Pratchett faithful. But I put my name down for a copy anyway, out of a sense of duty... and when it arrived and I paged my way through it... well, now I'm a believer. And also – no, wait, I'll let Mr Briggs do the talking (this is from his intro on page xi): "It has been a sad task to put together what will be the final Discworld Companion. Both Terry and I expected him to carry on writing into his nineties, with me producing updated Companions every few years. Fate had other ideas." And that's my third reason for wanting you to buy this book: because this is the last collected glimpse of Sir Terry's creations we are ever going to see in a new text form.
The Ultimate Discworld Companion: heartily recommended. I cherish this book, and I think you will too.
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07) IMAGES OF THE MONTH
Just a reminder that Good Omens was always meant to be a joint project between these two authors... https://bit.ly/3u7ohtO
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08) CLOSE
Speaking of the Abominable Snow Baby film, I decided not to review it, on the grounds that I have spent a long lifetime so far detesting almost all animated films and Christmas films in particular (why yes, my idea of a Christmas film *is* Die Hard) and thus am unable to compare it to any other well-known ones. However, I will say that I did watch it, and while I found it as forgettably frothy as most kiddie-fare in any medium, I did think that the artwork itself was rather beautiful. Oh, and for the record, having seen the horrid and oh so un-Maurice-like teaser images for the animated Amazing Maurice, I won't be watching that when it comes out (if you want to see a Maurice that looks like Maurice instead of looking like nothing so much as a cross between Garfield and a ginger Jabba the Hutt, you need look no further than Paul Kidby's various interpretations). The magician known as Terry Pratchett certainly wrote fabulous stories for a younger audience, though, so if a decent-looking animated Dodger ever shows up on our screens I'll be there with popcorn and an open mind.
...and that's it for January. Mind how you go, and we'll see you next month!
– Annie Mac
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The End. If you have any questions or requests, write: wossname-owner (at) pearwood (dot) info
© 2022 by Wossname for the Klatchian Foreign Legion
Newsletter of the Klatchian Foreign Legion
January 2022 (Volume 25, Issue 1, Post 1)
********************************************************************
WOSSNAME is a free publication offering news, reviews, and all the other stuff-that-fits pertaining to the works 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.
********************************************************************
Editor in Chief: Annie Mac
News Editor: Vera P
Newshounds: Mogg, Sir J of Croydon Below, the Shadow, Mss C, Alison not Aliss
Staff Writers: Asti, Pitt the Elder, Evil Steven Dread, Mrs W-J
Staff Technomancer: Jason Parlevliet
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)
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
INDEX:
01) QUOTES OF THE MONTH
02) EDITOR'S LETTER
03) ODDS AND SODS
04) DISCWORLD PLAYS NEWS
05) DISCWORLD MEETING GROUPS NEWS
06) ROUNDWORLD TALES: KEN THE CLEVER LIBRARIAN
07) IMAGES OF THE MONTH
08) CLOSE
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
01) QUOTES OF THE MONTH
"Of all the dead authors in the world, Terry Pratchett is the most alive."
– John Lloyd, a bit of a writing legend himself
"We couldn’t be more delighted to have such a fitting tribute to Terry. When the first finished audio files arrived at the Chapel – Terry’s writing room and centre of the Pratchett universe – I listened at full volume until the stone walls rattled and am beyond overjoyed with the results … Every single voice does justice to the wit, warmth and unique genius of Terry’s storytelling."
– Rob Wilkins, delighted with the new Discworld audiobooks
"A Life with Footnotes captures the genius that was Terry Pratchett, with warmth, poignancy, and great good humour - and with no small amount of love. It's an intimate, engaging and revealing portrait of one of the UK’s most loved and most missed authors, that only Rob Wilkins could have written. It is a masterclass in great biographical writing."
– Transworld managing director Larry Finlay
"As many of you know, I fell into Discworld backwards, as if I'd been leaning on a rickety old door in a walled garden and I'd suddenly found myself in a magical kingdom full of snow, fauns and benevolent lions. I hadn't meant to be here, but I'm jolly glad that I am."
– Stephen Briggs, in his introduction to The Ultimate Discworld Companion
"For the past three decades my work has been devoted almost exclusively to Discworld and my archive is expansive... there has been much rummaging in cupboards and extensive searching on hard drives for long-lost images."
– Paul Kidby, ibid.
"Whilst we don’t have Vimes any more, we do have Jack and Dad would be proud to see his work used in such a way."
– Rhianna Pratchett in the Guardian, approving of Jack Monroe's use of the Vimes Boots Index
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
02) LETTER FROM YOUR EDITOR
Welcome back, O Readers, to the Year of the Lachrymating Leveret!
It’s always good to see Sir Pterry references in the mainstream press, but this time it’s more than that – the Vimes Boots Index has come to Roundworld! Food writer and anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe received permission from the Pratchett estate to use Sam Vimes’ Theory of Boots as a more realistic price index metric than the standard government one. If you’ve never heard of Jack Monroe – and in particular, if you’re finding it harder than usual to make ends meet in these strange pandemic times – you’d do well to get your Google on. Monroe has over the past decade become a hero to every hard-up single parent, every penniless student scraping by in a share-house, and indeed, everyone who wants to make their food budget go further. Now this news has been picked up by press and blog sites all around Roundworld, so an even wider public will learn what we Discworld fans have known for years, and who knows, maybe this will spread the word about the Pratchett oeuvre wider yet...
And now, on with the show...
– Annie Mac, Editor
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
03) ODDS AND SODS
3.0 THE VIMES BOOTS INDEX COMES TO ROUNDWORLD
More details about the Vimes Boots Index, from Alison Flood in the Guardian:
"Monroe was prompted to create her index after inflation jumped to 5.4% last week, and she found herself ‘infuriate[d]’ that the index (the consumer price index or CPI) used for this calculation ‘grossly underestimates the real cost of inflation as it happens to people with the least’. She laid out how the prices of ‘value’ product ranges in supermarkets had soared over the last decade – rice in her local supermarket had increased in price from 45p for a kilogram bag last year, to £1 for 500g, a 344% increase – and how the number of value products has shrunk. She was soon working with economists, charities and analysts to compile her own index. ‘One,’ she wrote in the Observer, ‘that will document the disappearance of the budget lines and the insidiously creeping prices of the most basic versions of essential items at the supermarket’ and ‘serve as an irrefutable snapshot of the reality experienced by millions of people’. In a tweet on Wednesday, Monroe announced that the index is already starting to make a difference, as the Office for National Statistics has admitted that ‘one inflation rate doesn’t fit all’. She wrote: Delighted to be able to tell you that the
ons have just announced that they are going to be changing the way they collect and report on the cost of food prices and inflation to take into consideration a wider range of income levels and household circumstances, using the hashtag #VimesBootsIndex. The index, Monroe said, is named in honour of Pratchett’s creation Sam Vimes, who in the Discworld novel Men at Arms lays out the ‘Sam Vimes “Boots” theory of socio-economic unfairness’..."https://bit.ly/3GeYhza
And here be an interesting response from Peter Johnstone of St John’s College, Cambridge about the Boots Theory's origins. Given that Sir Pterry was well known to be a picker-up of inconsidered trifles and a childhood library hound, he might just have seen this in some newspaper morgue or other...
"Paul Jennings expressed exactly the same idea in his Observer column Oddly Enough in 1954: 'You find, for instance, that you have got to have a new pair of shoes, so you rush into a shop and buy some; some cheap ones, and they are worn out in three months. But if you were on one of the inner platforms [Jennings’ term for the rich] you would go calmly into a rather splendid shop and buy the sort of shoes that are bought by men on leave in London from Africa, or down from their Scottish moorland estates. Twenty years later these men are still wearing the same shoes, they photograph them with mud on, they write letters which may be inspected at the head office of the shoe firm. But the point is that after these twenty years, inner circle men have spent far less on shoes than outside men.' I don’t know whether Terry Pratchett was aware of this article when he wrote Men at Arms, but the similarity is striking."
https://bit.ly/3o7ySAY
3.1 AT LAST, THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY
"Transworld Publishers are thrilled to announce the publication of Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes, the official biography of Sir Terry Pratchett, written by Rob Wilkins, his former assistant, friend and now head of the author’s literary estate. At the time of his death in 2015, Terry was working on his finest story yet – his own... Following his untimely death from Alzheimer’s disease, the mantle of completing Terry Pratchett’s memoir was passed to Rob. Having known and worked alongside Terry as his personal assistant and business manager for over two decades, Rob is in the unique position of being able to offer both a personal and professional insight into the beloved writer’s public and private lives, as well as highlighting the origins and evolution of Terry’s extraordinarily successful creations. Drawing on his own extensive memories, as well as those of Terry’s family, close friends, fans and the colleagues who worked with him over the years, Rob recounts Terry’s story - from his early childhood to the literary phenomenon that his Discworld series became. It also chronicles Terry’s later years, his championing of environmental and humanitarian causes, and how he met and coped with the challenges that ‘The Embuggerance’ of Alzheimer’s brought with it...”
https://dunmanifestin.com/biography/
3.2 AUDIOBOOKS NEWS
The new audiobook adaptation of Good Omens is now available! David Tennant and Michael Sheen are back as Crowley and Aziraphale, of course, and the remainder of the all-star cast includes Katherine Kingsley as Anathema Device), Arthur Darvill as Newt Pulsifer, Peter Forbes as Shadwell, Gabrielle Glaister doing double duty as Madame Tracy and Agnes Nutter). The new Good Omens can be bought from Audible: https://adbl.co/3ABZCyK
And speaking of new audio releases, the first batch of the 21st century Discworld novel re-reads will be released on the 28th of April this year! Titles include
Equal Rites, Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Carpe Jugulum and Maskerade, all read by Indira Varma, and a very special treat – Small Gods, read by none other than Andy Serkis.
3.3 ABOMINABLE SNOW BABY REVIEWS
Although The Abominable Snow Baby rated well when shown, there seemed to be a dearth of press reviews – and the only one of the “majors” that seemed to have reviewed it was far from impressed.
By Benji Wilson for the Telegraph:
"Of course, The Abominable Snowbaby is aimed at kids first and foremost, and they won’t give two snowmen about things that happened more than two Fortnite sessions ago, but even standing alone Snowbaby feels a little light – as if the Pratchett name alone should have us pinned to our sofas… It’s never easy to define warmth or charm on screen, but drama is always at its least charming when it's striving to charm. I think the graphic style of The Abominable Snowbaby is meant to look more angular and less cuddly than, for example, the Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler adaptations that have been a feature of the BBC Christmas for the last decade. But the upshot is that the Snowbaby itself looks bland..."
https://bit.ly/3KVxThe
A far less dismissive review, by Ivan Radford on Vodzilla:
The half-hour film whisks us away to the town of Blackberry, where the residents find themselves snowed in. The disarray is heightened by the appearance of a 14-foot abominable snowman, which is immediately shunned by the residents out of fear. Only one person shows it compassion: the no-nonsense Granny (Juliet Walters), who inspires her grandson, Albert (Hugh Dancy), to show kindness and courage too. It soon becomes apparent (if the title doesn’t give it away) that the snowman isn’t quite what it appears – and that even the most intimidating, unfamiliar figure comes with its own family and loved ones. That humanising message has a more timely resonance than, say The Snowman, with which this will inevitably be compared – and that modern edge helps offset the other areas where it struggles to live up to the other “Snow-noun” legend, whose shadow looms large. That’s mainly in terms of the animation, which is cute but feels a little too cleanly cut for such a fuzzy, furry tale. But the star of the show, undoubtedly, is Terry Pratchett, whose wordplay shines through the vocal talents of the cast – Walters’ fearless biddy is a delight, while David Harewood’s narration has a gorgeous gravitas and warmth..."
https://bit.ly/3KRKJNm
A long review-cum-backstory, by Pratchett biographer Marc Burrows for Heyuguys:
"Terry Pratchett’s The Abominable Snow Baby is the latest in a long line of prestige Christmas Day animations commissioned by Channel 4, following last year’s lovely Quentin Blake’s The Clown and going right back to 1982 and The Snowman. It’s a gorgeous piece of work, delightfully silly, satisfyingly British and beautifully animated, the tone of the humour and the visual style, like a classic Beano comic strip come to life... Snow Baby adapts a short story written, not by the award-winning Professor Sir Terry Pratchett, OBE, at one time the best-selling living author in the English language, and the creator of the (flat) world-conquering Discworld series … but by a twenty-year-old trainee journalist working on a local paper. In 1965, aged just seventeen, Pratchett dropped out of school to begin an apprenticeship at the Bucks Free Press, the local weekly which served his particular corner of south Buckinghamshire. Almost immediately he was given one of the least popular jobs on the paper – writing the ‘Children’s Circle’ column, under the pseudonym ‘Uncle Jim’. The column consisted of a list of readers’ birthdays and a short bedtime story, serialised over several weeks. Prior to Pratchett’s time the stories had focussed on the fairly insipid sub-Beatrix Potter adventures of characters called things like ‘Boo Boo Bunny’, ‘Frances Frog’ and ‘Peter Piper the Stoat’. The young Pratchett was having none of that...
"Snow Baby is based on a story printed across four weeks starting in December 1968, and is a textbook example, full of silly turns of phrase, puns and bold, quickly sketched but memorable characters like Granny, voiced here – rather perfectly – by Julie Walters. 'The last home I expected them to ever find would be on Christmas Day,' says [Rob] Wilkins, 'I mean that in a good way, it’s just it was completely unexpected. Terry always wanted the Doctor Who slot on the telly. That’s the one thing that he wanted – seven-thirty on a Saturday night, sitting down with your mum and dad having fish and chips and angel delight for pudding, and I think we’ve given him better than that...'..."
https://bit.ly/3AGouoU
Marc Burrows is the author of The Magic of Terry Pratchett. It's quite a decent bit of well-researched work. You can buy it directly from him here:
https://bit.ly/3oaItaa
3.4 MERCH CORNER
* Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes!
We've more than half the year to wait yet, but pre-ordering is possible now...
"Drawing on his own extensive memories, along with those of Terry’s family, friends, fans and colleagues, Rob recounts Terry's extraordinary story to be published later this year on September 29th. Each copy from the Discworld Emporium will be signed by Rob, and is available to pre-order today. A Life with Footnotes is the book some whippersnappers in the Discworld fandom have waited a literal lifetime for; the life and times of our favourite author written indelibly on the page to be treasured for lifetimes to come...”
Each hardcover copy of Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes is priced at £25 and will be released on 29th September 2022. For more info, and to pre-order, go to:
https://bit.ly/3rYSSai
* Ook beanie!
It’s still cold outside (unless you live in Fourecks or the Land of Fog), so this will keep you warm at the same time as keeping people informed about your love for the Librarian!
“Keep warm with our orange beanie featuring the Librarian’s 'Ook!', meaning yes, where as 'Eek' tends to mean no. For this design we use Beechfield Original Cuffed Beanie. One Size. Double layer knit. Cuffed design. 100% soft touch acrylic.”
Each Ook beanie is priced at £10. For more info, and to order, go to:
https://bit.ly/3o7yKBD
3.5 GOOD OMENS 2 NEWS
From Molly Templeton, on Tor.com:
"As if it wasn’t already a delightful surprise that Amazon’s adaptation of Good Omens will continue, it turns out that in season two, we’ll get to spend a little extra time in the world of Crowley and Aziraphale. In an update on his blog this morning, Neil Gaiman announced that the currently-filming season will have three 'minisodes,' which he describes as 'stories that begin and end within a larger episode, ones that dive into history.' There will be three minisodes: one written by novelist Cat Clarke; one by Good Omens 2 co-writer John Finnemore; and one by the collaborative writing team of Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman. It’s not entirely clear how or where we’ll be able to watch the minisodes—but since this is a Prime Video series, it might be safe to assume that they’ll pop up as part of the streamer’s 'X-Ray' content, like the Expanse shorts running alongside this season. Finnemore's story is set in biblical times, and Clarke’s in Victorian times. The short by Dyson and Nyman is set in London during the blitz...”
https://bit.ly/3Ga3Oaa
Good Omens 2 is in production now. There have been many "reveals" regarding additions to the cast, often conflicting, and some actors are returning to the series but in different roles, so here is the cast as far as Wossname can tell at the moment:
David Tennant
Michael Sheen
Michael McKean
Miranda Richardson
Jon Hamm
Nina Sosanya
Doon Mackichan
Dame Sian Phillips
Derek Jacobi
Mark Gatiss
Steve Pemberton
Reece Shearsmith
Niamh Walsh
Tim Downie
Pete Firman
Andi Osho
Alex Norton
Maggie Service
Gloria Obianyo
Liz Carr
Quelin Sepulveda
Shelley Conn
Abigail Lawrie
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04) DISCWORLD PLAYS NEWS
Nothing to see here this month. Come on, Roundworlders, let's get those Discworld plays back on the boards!
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05) DISCWORLD MEETING GROUPS NEWS
The Broken Drummers, “London’s Premier Unofficially Official Discworld Group” (motto “Nil percussio est”)
BrokenDrummers@gmail.com or nicholls.helen@yahoo.co.uk or join their Facebook group at https://bit.ly/3jtYLGo
“The Gathering of the Loonies (Wincanton chapter)”
https://www.facebook.com/groups/373578522834654/
The Broken Vectis Drummers broken_vectis_drummers@yahoo.co.uk
The Wincanton Omnian Temperance Society (WOTS) meets at Wincanton’s famous Bear Inn when social gatherings are possible.
The Northern Institute of the Ankh-Morpork and District Society of Flatalists
http://www.discworldstamps.co.uk/forum/
* FOURECKSIAN DISCWORLD GROUPS
Adelaide – City of Small Gods Terry Pratchett Fan Club
http://www.cityofsmallgods.org.au
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cityofsmallgods
https://discord.gg/3RVzsyJ
Regular events: Monthly dinners (when permitted!), Monthly crafty evenings on discord, regular book discussions, and occasional board game days. We also hold special events sometimes, such as picnics, Quiz Nights and outings to see Discworld plays.
Melbourne – Victorian Discworld Klatch
https://2022.ausdwcon.org/fan-clubs/melbourne
https://www.facebook.com/groups/VictorianDiscworldKlatch
https://discord.com/invite/w5KPAaYH
Regular events: Monthly gatherings, board game days, crafternoons, movies, picnics, and more. We are also regulars at the various pop culture events around Victoria.
Sydney – Mended Drummers and Western Drummers
Mended Drummers: https://www.facebook.com/groups/downunderdrummers
Western Drummers: https://www.facebook.com/groups/100376433635355
Both groups get together monthly to chat over a few drinks, with subjects ranging far and wide, have a Discworld themed quiz and generally enjoy the company of fellow Discworld fans.
Brisbane – Pratchett Partisans
https://www.facebook.com/groups/pratchettpartisans
Join us in and around Brisbane for regular Pratchett-inspired nights including Dining Around the Disc, board games arvos, Pratchett Picnics and Discworld Discussions. We also hold special events once or twice a year like themed parties, scavenger hunts and cocktail nights. Many of us also attend opening night of Brisbane Arts Theatre’s Pratchett Productions in costume.
Perth – Treacle Mining Corporation
https://www.facebook.com/groups/PerthDrummers
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06) REVIEW: THE ULTIMATE DISCWORLD COMPANION
By Annie Mac
What, yet another Discworld companion? But why? There are already four of them, aren't there?
Ah, but none of those are ultimate.
Well, actually, The Ultimate Discworld Companion isn't ultimate either, strictly speaking – it doesn't contain *every* minor character ever mentioned in every one of the novels, novel ancillaries, diaries, almanacs and whatnot, although many from the earlier versions of the Companion have indeed found their way back in – but at this juncture it's as ultimate an official Companion as we're likely to get. And there are two reasons why this new Companion deserves to be added to every Discworld fan's bookshelves: two smoking barrels of Stephen Briggs' amusing, often sting-in-the-tail descriptions, and a fantastic, all-singing, all-dancing collection of Paul Kidby's Disc art.
The latter is what makes The Ultimate Discworld Companion truly worth acquiring, no matter how many other versions of the Companion you might already own. Not only are there numerous Kidby illustrations scattered throughout the book's 423 pages, but they are a combination of much-beloved familiar ones, ones that have only been previously seen by those who bought the various Discworld almanacs, and ones that have never been seen until now – and most importantly, most of the familiar ones have been subtly updated in delightful ways. Somehow, by the addition of tiny details here and there (quite possibly by magic), Mr Kidby has turned his famous portraits of major Discworld characters into believable *people* who could easily be taken for photographs (or at least, iconographs), and has done so without losing the original visual 'feel' of each one. All of Nanny Ogg's witchy power and cheerful debauchery has come to life, as has Granny Weatherwax's steely determination and strange majesty. Fred Colon has become a living, breathing man, no longer a caricature, and while Nobby Nobbs still looks Nobby Nobbs-like, he also now looks human enough that he might even get away with leaving his certificate at home. Sam Vimes is no longer Clint Eastwood nor Pete Postlethwaite but simply Sam Vimes; Carrot is now a perfect clean-cut action hero but with true intelligence peeping though his not quite simple expression; and as for Angua, one can positively *feel* her uncertainty about living amongst humans – and if a proper full-budget Discworld film ever gets made, all I can say is that I hope the casting department has Carey Mulligan's agent's phone number. In fact, you could spend hours playing Guess the Inspiration when it comes to many of these illustrations (Ptraci is so Uma Thurman it almost hurts; put an eyepatch on Baron Saturday and you're most of the way to Samuel L Jackson's Nick Fury; Sally von Humpeding has much more than a hint of Anne Hathaway; and so on).
When I first heard about The Ultimate Discworld Companion, I was unimpressed. Suspicious, even. Given the number of "look what we found behind the settee" releases and re-releases and re-re-releases that have popped up in the years since our favourite author crossed the black desert, I wondered if this was a way to wring more cash out of the Pratchett faithful. But I put my name down for a copy anyway, out of a sense of duty... and when it arrived and I paged my way through it... well, now I'm a believer. And also – no, wait, I'll let Mr Briggs do the talking (this is from his intro on page xi): "It has been a sad task to put together what will be the final Discworld Companion. Both Terry and I expected him to carry on writing into his nineties, with me producing updated Companions every few years. Fate had other ideas." And that's my third reason for wanting you to buy this book: because this is the last collected glimpse of Sir Terry's creations we are ever going to see in a new text form.
The Ultimate Discworld Companion: heartily recommended. I cherish this book, and I think you will too.
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07) IMAGES OF THE MONTH
Just a reminder that Good Omens was always meant to be a joint project between these two authors... https://bit.ly/3u7ohtO
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08) CLOSE
Speaking of the Abominable Snow Baby film, I decided not to review it, on the grounds that I have spent a long lifetime so far detesting almost all animated films and Christmas films in particular (why yes, my idea of a Christmas film *is* Die Hard) and thus am unable to compare it to any other well-known ones. However, I will say that I did watch it, and while I found it as forgettably frothy as most kiddie-fare in any medium, I did think that the artwork itself was rather beautiful. Oh, and for the record, having seen the horrid and oh so un-Maurice-like teaser images for the animated Amazing Maurice, I won't be watching that when it comes out (if you want to see a Maurice that looks like Maurice instead of looking like nothing so much as a cross between Garfield and a ginger Jabba the Hutt, you need look no further than Paul Kidby's various interpretations). The magician known as Terry Pratchett certainly wrote fabulous stories for a younger audience, though, so if a decent-looking animated Dodger ever shows up on our screens I'll be there with popcorn and an open mind.
...and that's it for January. Mind how you go, and we'll see you next month!
– Annie Mac
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The End. If you have any questions or requests, write: wossname-owner (at) pearwood (dot) info
© 2022 by Wossname for the Klatchian Foreign Legion
