Pratchat - a Terry Pratchett and Discworld book club

Games journalist and PC Gamer editor Jody Macgregor joins Liz and Ben to take control of an oddly Pythonesque Rincewind and discuss the 1995 graphic adventure game Discworld from Teeny Weeny Games and Perfect 10 Productions. A nefarious secret society has summoned a dragon in Ankh-Morpork! It’s a suspiciously familiar plot, and of course the only one who can save the city is...Rincewind? This wizard might not know any spells, but he’s decidedly snarky and cunning - and accompanied by an inventory window on legs. Together, they’ll use petty theft, time travel and logic that would put Rube Goldberg to shame to rid the city of this scaly threat forever...twice! Terry Pratchett was famously an early adopter of computers, and a devoted video game player, so its no surprise that there were other Discworld videogames before...er...Discworld. But this 1995 point-and-click graphic adventure game is by far the most well known and beloved of the lot - despite also being infamous for its difficulty, in a genre known for obscure puzzles with illogical solutions! The player controls a version of Rincewind voiced by Eric Idle, who must travel back and forth all over Ankh-Morpork (and to the edge of the Disc) to collect a variety of random objects to save the city. The plot is loosely based on Guards! Guards!, with some flavour from Moving Pictures and a cast drawn from the early wizards novels. It was followed by two more games from the same team: Discworld II: Missing, Presumed...?!, and Discworld Noir, each with quite different visual styles, and the latter with a brand new protagonist. Sadly, all three are “abandonware” - not only unavailable, but languishing in copyright limbo, with no-one sure enough who currently has the rights to get them published again. Have you had a chance to play Discworld? What do you think of this version of Rincewind, Ankh-Morpork and the Disc? Would you like to hear us do episodes about the two other adventure games? And what other adventure games would you recommend for folks looking for a similar vibe? What other kinds of Discworld videogame would you like to see? Click on Pratchat and choose the question mark icon to join our online conversation, using the hashtag #Pratchat89. Guest Jody Macgregor (he/him) is a journalist who started out writing about music, but now writes mostly about videogames. He’s been writing for PC Gamer for about a decade, and is currently the magazine's weekend and Australian editor. You can find out more about him, and read his most recent reviews and articles, by looking up his profile at pcgamer.com. You can find episode notes and errata on our web site. Next month we’re catching a train - the Ankh-Morpork Scenic Railway, that is - as we read Terry Pratchett’s penultimate Discworld novel, Raising Steam! Send us your questions via email (chat@pratchatpodcast.com), or get on board via your local social media platform using the hashtag #Pratchat90.

Illustrator, game designer and educator Brendan Barnett joins Ben to discuss art, ideas, inspiration, creative process, dragons, wizards and goblins (oh my!) as we leaf through Paul Kidby's 2024 gorgeous coffee table book, Designing Terry Pratchett's Discworld. Paul Kidby started bringing Terry Pratchett’s Discworld to life when, on the third attempt, he showed off his skill to the author by drawing his own versions of Discworld characters who had so captured his imagination. After several successful collaborations on art books, diaries, maps and the epic The Last Hero, he took over as the cover artist for the series after the death of Josh Kirby in 2001. His illustrations of the characters have become iconic, and Pratchett himself referred to him as his ‘artist of choice’. In this book, Paul discusses his pre-Discworld career, his long collaboration with Terry, and even shows us a glimpse of what might have been by sketching drafts of covers for the books that never were. Do you have a favourite illustration from the book? What was most interesting to you about Paul’s process as an artist - and what’s it like to read if you don’t consider yourself one? How many of originals that Kidby parodies or does an homage to did you know? And who are your other favourite artists? Illustrate your point by sending us your answers (or questions) via a comment, or on the back of a social media post using the hashtag #Pratchat88. Guest Brendan Barnett (he/him) has spend around 15 years working with young people to foster their creativity, including for most of the last decade with Ben at their previous workplace, the creative writing centre 100 Story Building. Trained as an animator and an actor, he is also a keen lover of fantasy roleplaying, and has designed some very well-received adventures for Dungeons & Dragons and similar games. You can find out more about his work at brendanbarnett.com, and find his latest adventure, Grotto of the Golden Gargoyle, on itch.io - as well as his recent collaboration with Ben, the one-page adventure Flee the Flying Saucer! You can find episode notes and errata on our web site. Next month we’re surfing the wave of Melbourne International Games Week (which happened just as this episode was being edited) to discuss the 1995 graphic adventure videogame Discworld! A slightly odd adaptation of the plot of Guards! Guards!, Discworld stars Eric Idle as the voice of Rincewind, alongside a small but equally impressive cast of UK comedy talent. It’s not currently commercially available, but you can find play-through videos of it on YouTube. Get your questions in via email to chat@pratchatpodcast.com, or send them via social media using the hashtag #Pratchat89. Then, for December, #Pratchat90 will return us to the Discworld novels for nearly the final time, as we read the final Moist von Lipwig book, Raising Steam! We’ll remind you about it next month, but if you want to get your questions in early, the hashtag for that episode is #Pratchat90. And don’t worry - we have plans to discuss Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch in the new year. Watch this space!

Due to a number of factors, including the death of beloved Pratcat Kaos, there’s no episode of Pratchat this month. Thanks to artist Owen Heitmann, who drew Kaos as part of the art for our subscriber-only podcast, Ook Club. Ben’s other bookshelf episode will appear in the subscriber-only Ook Club podcast feed later this month. Please do check out some of the other Pratchett podcasts catalogued in The Guild of Recappers & Podcasters. We plan to be back in October with #Pratchat88, our episode about Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch and Designing Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.

Our August episode has been delayed, so here’s a bonus episode in which Ben talks about some of the books on his Pratchett shelf that won’t get their own episode! You can find all the books mentioned in this episode in the Books index on our website. Some brief notes on this episode: A “shelfie” is a photo of one’s shelf of books or board games, usually shared online. The tie-in books Ben mentions are Where's My Cow (see #Pratchat62, “There’s a Cow in There”), The World of Poo (as referenced in Snuff), Mrs Bradshaw's Guide and Dodger's Guide to London (see #Pratchat6, “A Load of Old Tosh”). The published official Discworld maps are The Streets of Ankh-Morpork, The Discworld Mappe, Death’s Domain, A Tourist Guide to Lancre (now out of print), The Mappa Discworld, and the books The Compleat Ankh-Morpork and The Compleat Discworld Atlas. There’s also a newer one Ben forgot: The Unreal Guide to Unseen University. Paul Kidby’s first Discworld art book was The Pratchett Portfolio. It was followed by The Art of Discworld (the one with the “Mona Ogg” on the cover) in 2001. Turtles All the Way Down was Marc Burrows’ companion volume for his biography The Magic of Terry Pratchett. It’s currently sold out, as is Tales From Roundworld, the collection of Pratchett rarities he gave away at early performances of his live show based on the biography. Only the first four Discworld plays - the three Ben mentions, plus Wyrd Sisters - were published by Corgi. Fourteen more have been published by Methuen Drama (Bloomsbury), three by Oxford University Press, and three by Samuel French (Concord Theatricals). Find out more on Stephen Briggs’ website. The public version of our video episode about the two versions of The Carpet People is on YouTube. Mr Bunnsy Has an Adventure was published as a tie-in to The Amazing Maurice film, and was available from the official website. The store is still there, but not taking orders. You can however still get the book (as of November 2025) from Discworld.com - thanks listener Rowena for the tip off! It turns out The Nac Mac Feegle’s Big Wee Alphabet Book is back in stock! (Though postage to Australia costs more than the book.) Please don’t buy up all the copies before we get a few, ye ken? Big thanks to listener Emily for the tip-off! The new collections of Pratchett’s early children's stories are quite different to the previous ones. Tales of Wizards and Dragons and Tales of Beasts and Bugs each collect a handful of stories with full colour illustrations by Pratchett children’s illustration Mark Beech. They’re new this year from Puffin, and so aimed at a younger audience. Beasts and Bugs comes out at the end of August 2025. We’ll be back soon (hopefully later this month) with #Pratchat88, our episode about Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch and Designing Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.

Comedian and quizmaster Richard McKenzie returns to vie with Liz and Ben for control of the most odorous city on the Disc, as they discuss Martin Wallace’s 2011 board game Discworld: Ankh-Morpork. The Patrician has gone missing! This leaves a huge power vacuum in Ankh-Morpork, and several of the most powerful figures in the city immediately start jostling for control. Lords, criminals and vampires position their minions in every district, each on their own path to power - and getting in each others’ way. Ankh-Morpork can only remain leaderless for so long - and there will be only one winner... The first of the later Discworld board games, and generally considered by fans the best, Discworld: Ankh-Morpork (or just Ankh-Morpork) is a medium-to-light complexity game designed by Martin Wallace and published by Treefrog Games. Players take turns to play cards, following symbols and written instructions to alter the state of a map of Ankh-Morpork. Each card represents a character or location from the city, wonderfully illustrated by Peter Dennis. If the cards run out, then points are added up - but more likely, one of the players will achieve the secret objective of their “personality”, a hidden role which gives them one of five different victory conditions. Unfortunately the game was only available for five years before Treefrog lost the Discworld license, but it still holds pride of place in many fan collections - and goes for a pretty penny in the secondhand market. Especially the collector’s editions! Have you had a chance to play Discworld: Ankh-Morpork? Does it capture the feel of the Discworld, or the city of Ankh-Morpork? Do you have a favourite card? What’s missing from the books that you’d love to see added in? And now we’ve covered all the Discworld board games, do you have a favourite? Or an idea for a new game? Play your cards right by joining our online conversation, using the hashtag #Pratchat87. Guest Richard McKenzie (he/him) has been a comedian in the Melbourne scene for around twenty-five years. As well as writing and performing many solo storytelling shows, he’s supported big names like Adam Hills and Ross Noble, written and performed sketches and plays with WATSON and the Anarchist Guild Social Committee, and partnered with Ben for nerd comedy, including the Dungeons & Dragons-themed improvised show Dungeon Crawl. As of July 2025 you’ll find Richard hosting trivia at The College Lawn in Prahran on Wednesday evenings from 7 PM, and at The Cornish Arms in Brunswick on Thursday evenings (7 PM, general knowledge) and Sunday afternoons (2 PM, pop culture). Liz’s upcoming event to which psychology is relevant is the Sci-Fight comedy science debate for National Science Week, with the topic “Psychology is a Freud”. It’s on Tuesday, 12 August 2025 in Brunswick; find out more and book tickets via the Sci-Fight website. You can find episode notes and errata on our web site. Next month we’re back on the books - and we’re doing two at once! We’ll be discussing a couple of Discworld companion volumes, namely Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch by Rhianna Pratchett and Gabrielle Kent, and Designing Terry Pratchett’s Discworld by Paul Kidby - who also illustrated the Tiffany Aching book! Get your questions in via email (chat@pratchatpodcast.com), or sling them at us on social media using the hashtag #Pratchat88. Do listen to our interview with Rhianna and Gabrielle first - we’ll be avoiding doubling up on questions we asked them!

Liz and Ben are joined by Pratchett academic and cosplayer Freyja Stokes as they head out to the Discworld countryside for a bit of peace, quiet and definitely no murders, in Terry Pratchett’s final City Watch book, 2011’s Snuff. Sam Vimes is facing his ultimate ordeal: a holiday. But no sooner has he made a mess of meeting the staff at Crundles, the Ramkin country estate, than he smells something rotten in the Shires. When the local blacksmith offers to meet him at midnight, he and his trusty valet Willikins instead find a puddle of blood and the ire of the local magistrates. A lot more’s afoot than a simple murder - and it seems to have something to do with goblins, tobacco, and Fred Colon taking a funny turn... One of the last of the Discworld novels, and the final one starring Sam Vimes and (in their by now customary secondary roles) the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, Snuff also introduces a new species of fantasy creature to the Disc: goblins. Not so much hated as barely considered by other peoples, they eke out a wretched existence in the corners of the world that can hide them, a remnant of the Old Days of Dark Lords and magical war. But for Pratchett, of course, goblins aren’t just tiny evil filthy things - and their story is much more about the evils of humans than any other monster. Have you read as far as Snuff, and do you think it feels different to the books that come before it? Were you expecting more of a mix of Pride & Prejudice and Midsomer Murders, and how do you feel about it being more of “howcatchem”? Was it a weird choice to take Vimes so far out of his element in his final book, or does it do us all a favour by showing us what his retirement might possibly look like? What’s the weirdest rule in crocket? How great are goblins???* And what’s your goblin name? Don’t get distracted by the new Clacks tower - join the conversation using the hashtag #Pratchat86. Guest Freyja Stokes (he/she) was one of the first recipients of UniSA’s Pratchett Scholarship, and finished her Masters thesis in 2023. It’s titled ‘The turtle moves : how Terry Pratchett's Discworld does vernacular theory’, and it’s available via the UniSA library. Freyja is also a keen cosplayer and crafty person, and you find her and her creations on Facebook and other social media. You can find episode notes and errata on our web site. Next month we take a break from the few remaining Pratchett novels to play a game that we promise is simpler than crocket: Discworld: Ankh-Morpork, the fan favourite of the board games! Get your questions in via email (chat@pratchatpodcast.com), or social media using the hashtag #Pratchat87. * This one is rhetorical. They’re really great.

A very brief little episode to say that we won’t have any episodes in May. We didn’t want to leave you without anything at all! As Ben suggests, why not listen to The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret’s special 25th of May episode, “Gender on the Discworld”, released today? You can find it in all major podcast directories, at thetruthshallmakeyefret.com, and there’s even a video version on YouTube. Or you could listen to #Pratchat54, “The Land Before Vimes”, our 2022 episode about Night Watch. We’ll be back in June with #Pratchat86, our episode about Snuff. And we will be producing an all-questions Eeek Club episode later in the year, so if you’re an Eeek-tier subscriber, please send us your question or topic for discussion!

Liz and Ben delve deep into the archives and come back with some highlights from the collected Discworld Diaries from Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs' The Ankh-Morpork Archives Volumes I (2019) and II (2020), plus Terry's 2004 collaboration with Bernard Pearson, The Discworld Alamak. Between 1998 and 2003, Discworld fans got an extra little treat: an in-universe diary themed around one of the Guilds or other major institutions of the Disc, full of new Discworld history and gags penned by Pratchett with the assistance of Stephen Briggs, and illustrations by Paul Kidby. In 2004, they got something a little different: a Roundworld version of the Celebrated Discworld Almanak, a publication famed for its wisdom, length and absorbency, co-authored by Pratchett and Bernard Pearson. After a brief break, two more diaries with new gags and Discworld lore appeared in 2007 and 2008, but any subsequent diaries or journals were just compilations of quotes and existing material. Like all diaries, these were smaller print runs and never reprinted, so for most fans these extra tidbits were lost to time. But then, in 2019 and 2020, Stephen Briggs and Paul Kidby brought all that weirdness back in two new books: The Ankh-Morpork Archives Volume I, and Volume II, each collecting the original content from four of those diaries and presenting them in a coffee-table style larger format, with new layout, updated or new art, and all the charm of the originals. Did you ever have one of the diaries? Did you write in it? What do you think of the new presentation of all these gags? Do the more unusual diaries have the same charm, or does it feel a bit like the best themes had already been used? And if you were to see new books based on any of this stuff, what would you want to see? Note your answer in your diary, then send it to us using the hashtag #Pratchat84. You can find episode notes and errata on our web site. Next month we knock off one of our few remaining Discworld novels: Sam Vimes' detective's holiday in the country, Snuff! Get your questions in via email (chat@pratchatpodcast.com), or social media using the hashtag #Pratchat86. (Our numbering got a bit messed up due to the delay of this episode, but trust us: the next one is 86!)

To mark ten years since Terry Pratchett's death, Liz, Ben and guest Myfanwy Coghill discuss his 2010 Richard Dimbleby lecture, “Shaking Hands with Death”. Please note that this episode includes discussions of death, terminal illness, assisted dying and suicide. Pratchett was the first novelist to give the Richard Dimbleby Lecture, an annual talk broadcast on the BBC in memory of Dimbleby, a BBC broadcaster who died in 1965. His subject was a turning point in his activism: from raising awareness (and money) for Alzheimer’s Disease, to talking openly about the inevitability of death, and the importance of being able to choose a good one, safely and legally. The speech was collected in A Slip of the Keyboard in 2014, and published in a standalone volume with an introduction by Rob Wilkins in 2015. (A new edition, with an updated introduction by Rob, will be published in October 2025.) The televised version is also (currently) on YouTube. We hope we’ve done Pratchett justice in carrying on this discussion. We are lucky to live in Australia, where citizens in most states have access to assisted dying - if under more narrow circumstances than Pratchett might have liked. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill provides similar access, and was introduced in the UK parliament by backbench Labour MP Kim Leadbeater in November 2024. At the time of publication (March 2025), it's currently at the committee stage; see the episode notes for more details. Guest Myfanwy Coghill (she/her) has been many things, including an opera singer, a teacher, a funeral director, and a Dungeon Master (of the Dungeons & Dragons variety). She previously appeared to discuss Maskerade in #Pratchat23, “The Music of the Nitt”, in September 2019. GNU Elspeth Sutherland; Kat Muscat; Stella Young; Cal Wilson; DJ Ian; and Terry Pratchett. We’d love you to consider supporting the Kat Muscat Fellowship, which provides support and development for a young Australian writer or editor each year; or helping to fund a new documentary about Stella Young, I Am Not Your Inspiration (which coincidentally launched in between us recording and publishing this episode). Pratchett’s favoured charities are well known: the Orang Utan Foundation, and the Alzheimer’s Society. The local Australian equivalent is Dementia Australia. You can find episode notes and errata on our web site. Next month is our rescheduled discussion about both volumes of the Ankh-Morpork Archives, which collect material from the Discworld diaries, and their sibling publication The Discworld Almanack! There’s still time for a few more questions; send them in via email (chat@pratchatpodcast.com), or social media using the hashtag #Pratchat84.

Our recording of #Pratchat83 was delayed at the last minute, so our discussion of The Ankh-Morpork Archives and The Discworld Almanak will have to wait until later in the month - hopefully around the 25th February. But subscriber Molokov suggested it might be fun to discuss some of the other, less book-like Discworld merchandise available, so in this shorter bonus episode, Ben does just that! We’d love to hear about your favourite merch, official or fan-made! Drop us a line and/or a photograph using the hashtag #PratchatMerch on social media, via email, or chat to us via our subscriber Discord. The merch Ben mentions this episode from the Discworld Emporium includes the Ankh-Morpork Doodle Map, Terry Pratchett’s Hat silver pin badge; Death’s Omega cloak pin; the Band with Rocks In tour T-shirt; the plushie Greebo and rat-onna-stick; beermats of pubs and brands; and the dried frog pills box. It’s not as easy to link to individual items at Discworld.com, but things Ben mentioned from there include various pins and badges; rare collectible pins; shopper bags; acrylic beanies; and the Great A’Tuin golf umbrella. The Anoia tea towel Ben liked was also from the Emporium, not Discworld.com, though they have tea towels too. He forgot to mention Discworld.com's notebooks - the Unseen University and Assassin’s Guild ones are especially good. And their T-shirts aren’t as “subtle” as he remembered, though their socks are certainly a bit less subtle than the Emporium’s. The episode title is a reference to a specific scene in Mel Brooks’ 1987 Star Wars parody Spaceballs. We’ll be back in late February with #Pratchat83, discussing The Ankh-Morpork Archives Volume I and Volume II, and The Discworld Almanak. If you’re very quick you could still get a question in about those! In March we’re commemorating the tenth anniversary of Terry’s death by discussing his thoughts on dying from “Shaking Hands with Death”, the Richard Dimbleby lecture he gave (with help from Tony Robinson) in 2010. It’s most readily available in A Slip of the Keyboard, but you can also watch the original speech on YouTube. It gets pretty heavy, but we’ll approach this discussion with empathy and kindness. Get your questions for that one in using the hashtag #Pratchat84.

Liz and Ben are joined by guest Dr Tansy Rayner Roberts PhD (Classics) to chat about fashion, faith, food...oh, and football. Yes, join us for an episode that goes well into extra time (i.e. it’s over 3 hours long) as we discuss Terry Pratchett's 37th Discworld novel, Unseen Academicals. The Wizards of Unseen University are still recovering from the Dean’s defection to become Archchancellor of rival Brazeneck College, but they have a bigger problem: if they don’t field a foot-the-ball team, they’ll lose the bequest that supplies most of their dinners. But the sport has become lawless and violent - a game of the streets in which matches last long into the night and players die. And then there’s the fans... But something’s in the air. The game’s about to change, and at the centre of it are an unlikely quartet of junior University staff: Glenda the sensible baker; beautiful and fashion-conscious Juliet; Trev, son of the game’s greatest player; and Mr Nutt, a goblin who’s good at everything - except explaining who and what he is... The last of the Discworld books to “star” the wizards, and the longest in the series by a fair margin, Unseen Academicals repeatedly says that it isn’t really about football. And, indeed, there’s a lot else going on: new ways for both dwarfs and trolls to express their femininity; the internal voices which hold us back from reaching our potential; the struggle between progress and fairness, of power and the people. And at the heart of it, four brand new characters who represent a side of Ankh-Morpork we don’t usually see in our protagonists: the regular people, caught up in the Shove. What did you think of Unseen Academicals? Does it have enough football in it, or too much? What are your favourite takes on orcs? What other sports would you like to see come to the Discworld? And do you know where we can get a megapode? Shout out from the Shove using the hashtag #Pratchat83! Guest Dr Tansy Rayner Roberts PhD (Classics) (she/her) is a Tasmanian author of sci-fi, fantasy and cosy crime. Her essay series Pratchett’s Women was collected into a book, and her follow up series on Pratchett’s men can be found at the online magazine Speculative Insight. Tansy recently reprinted her “Teacup Magic” series of cosy mysteries, and her newest novel is the time travel comedy Time of the Cat. You can find Tansy online at tansyrr.com and as @tansyrr on social media; you’ll also find her in our previous live episodes: “A Troll New World” (from Nullus Anxietas 7 in 2019) and “Unalive from Überwald” (from Nullus Anxietas IX in 2024). You can find episode notes and errata on our web site. Next month we’re looking at a stack of Discworld ephemera - namely both volumes of the Ankh-Morpork Archives, which collect material from the Discworld diaries, and their sibling publication The Discworld Almanack! If you’ve read any of those, please send us your questions via email (chat@pratchatpodcast.com), or social media. Use the hashtag #Pratchat84.

Puzzlers and previous guests Nicholas J Johnson and Lawrence Leung return to play and discuss Leonard Boyd and David Brashaw's 2015 board game Clacks, based on Terry Pratchett's 33rd Discworld novel, Going Postal. Postmaster General Moist von Lipwig has come up with a plan to prove the Ankh-Morpork postal service is still relevant - a race against the Grand Trunk Semaphore Company! The Grand Trunk has a monopoly on the “Clacks”, a system of optical telegraph towers which transmit messages using patterns formed by a grid of six lights - surely they can beat a man on a horse? But the Grand Trunk knows Moist has something up his sleeve, and they’re taking no chances - the fastest and best new Clacks operators will have to prove they’re worthy of the job by racing each other first... The fifth (and so far final) Discworld board game, Clacks is the second Discworld design by Boyd and Brashaw’s BackSpindle games (following Guards! Guards!). Clacks turns the race at the climax of Going Postal into a logic puzzle where up to four players must use punch cards to turn patterns of lights on and off in a grid, hoping to form another pattern which equates to a letter in Clacks code. It’s a race to finish your word (or words) first, either against each other, or as a team against Moist von Lipwig - but sharing the same grid of lights makes this puzzle very unpredictable. Is it Discworldy enough? Does it feel like the Clacks technology of the books? Do you find it fun or funny, and do you prefer it collaborative or cooperative? And what else would you play to get your logic puzzle fix? Oh, and if you want to try making the longest sentence you can out of our Clacks words, the ones we drew were SHINE, SONKY, MAGIC, URIKA, ADORA, TOMAS, GUILD, QUIRM, RUFUS, GROAT, MONKS, GNOME, PIXIE, TROLL, TURVY, ANDRE, AHMED, CELYN, THIEF and KLOTZ. Let us know how you went using the hashtag #Pratchat82. Guest Nicholas J Johnson is an author, magician, educator and expert in deception, who goes by the nickname "Australia's Honest Con-Man". You can find details of Nick's shows and workshops, including his upcoming magic show for children at the 2025 Melbourne Comedy Festival, at conman.com.au, or follow him on Bluesky, Instagram or Facebook as @honestconman. Guest Lawrence Leung is a comedian, screenwriter and actor, known to Australian audiences for live and screen comedy, including the 2015 feature film Sucker, and more recently appearances in My Life is Murder, Aunty Donna’s Comedy Cafe and Time Bandits. For all the latest about Lawrence, including his upcoming research into seances and mediums in Victorian Melbourne, visit lawrenceleung.com, or follow him on Instagram at @mrlawrenceleung. You can find episode notes and errata on our web site. One quick correction: Marc Burrows’ one man show The Magic of Terry Pratchett is on in Adelaide from 21 February to 7 March. See the full notes for details. We’ll be kicking off the new year with one of the few Discworld novels we have left - and why not go large with the longest Pratchett novel of all, Unseen Academicals? We’ll be lacing up our football boots and dusting off our mortarboards alongside returning guest Tansy Rayner Roberts! Send us your questions via email (chat@pratchatpodcast.com), or social media. Use the hashtag #Pratchat83.

Author and poet* Dr Laura Jean McKay joins Liz and Ben for two of Terry Pratchett’s short stories about intelligent animals: “Hollywood Chickens” (1990) and “From the Horse’s Mouth” (1972). In 1973 Hollywood, a truck full of chickens overturned on a busy highway, depositing a population of chickens on the verge. A decade and a half later, scientists try to piece together the story of how they developed and evolved in pursuit of a very specific goal... In the town of Blackbury, rag and bone man Ron is amazed to discover that his carthorse, Johnno, can talk. Will their relationship be forever changed by the adventure they share together? These stories don’t share too much in common beyond being about animals, but they are a nice sample of Pratchett’s writing from two interesting points in his career: towards the end of his early phase of children’s stories for newspapers, not long after his first novel was published; and at the height of his early fame - the year, in fact, that he published five novels. You can find “Hollywood Chickens” most readily in A Blink of the Screen, and “From the Horse’s Mouth” in A Stroke of the Pen. Do you have a favourite Pratchett short story? What do you think of the way he writes animals? Should we have inserted an ad for Maggi noodles into this episode? What are your best horse pun names, and how would you get to the other side? We’d love to hear from you whether you’re a horse, chicken, human or have mutant powers: join the conversation for this episode via email, or by using the hashtag #Pratchat81 on social media. Dr Laura Jean McKay (she/her) is an author, poet* and an Adjunct Lecturer in Creative Writing at Massey University. Her novel The Animals in That Country - “like Thelma and Louise with a woman and a dingo” - has won multiple awards, including the Arthur C Clarke Award. Her latest book is the short fiction collection Gunflower, published in 2023. You can find Laura as @laurajeanmckay on Twitter and Instagram, and find out more about her books on her website, laurajeanmckay.com.au. * Even if she doesn’t know it. You'll find full notes and errata for this episode on our website, and you can hopefully still get tickets for Guards! Guards! at the Roleystone Theatre in Perth, which opens on 22 November 2024. Next episode we’re back on track to crack the Clacks in the most recent Discworld board game: Clacks! If you have questions about this game recreating the race between Moist and the Grand Trunk company, get them in to us ASAP by tagging us or using the hashtag #Pratchat82 on social media, or emailing us at chat@pratchatpodcast.com.

Inequality reporter Stephanie Convery returns on a trip with Liz and Ben into the world of banking, high finance and monetary theory in Terry Pratchett's thirty-sixth Discworld novel, 2007’s Making Money. The Ankh-Morpork Post Office is running very smoothly - which has left Moist von Lipwig, reformed con-man and Postmaster General, at a loose end. But he resists the Patrician's offer of a new job revitalising the Royal Mint and Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork. The bank’s current owner is a Mark 1 Feisty Old Lady who knows her rich family are out to get her - and her little dog, too. But despite Moist’s best attempts to not get involved, both dog and bank wind up in his care - putting him in the sights of the Lavish family, and especially Vetinari-obsessed Cosmo Lavish. Meanwhile, manager of the Golem Trust (and Moist's fiancée) Adora Belle Dearheart is digging up something ancient out on the desert. And Moist’s past is about to catch up with him... Just a few novels after debuting in Going Postal, Moist von Lipwig is back! Making Money is about the nature of money, but also about the thrill of the chase, grappling with one’s inner nature, and obsession. Aside from Gladys the Golem, Moist and Adora Belle bring few of their previous supporting cast along for the ride; instead we meet a new cast including Mr Bent, the Lavishes, another Igor, the Post-Mortem Communications Department of Unseen University, and the very good boy Mr Fusspot. Does this live up to the promise of Going Postal? Could Moist be in other Discworld books in disguise - and if so, as who? Did you guess Mr Bent’s secret? And if you had a Glooper, what would you use it to change in the world of money? No purchase necessary to join the conversation for this episode; just email us or use the hashtag #Pratchat80 on social media. Stephanie Convery (she/her) is is a writer and author. Previously the Deputy Culture Editor for The Guardian Australia, she’s now their dedicated inequality reporter. Stephanie’s first book, After the Count: The Death of Davey Browne, was published in March 2020 by Penguin Books. (We suspect it won’t be her last.) You can follow Stephanie on Twitter at @gingerandhoney, and find her work at Guardian Australia. Her previous appearances on Pratchat were for #Pratchat2, “Murdering a Curry” (about Mort), and #Pratchat42, “Truth, the Printing Press, and Every -ing” (about The Truth). You'll find full notes and errata for this episode on our website. Next episode we're continuing our Moist streak (sorry) with the (so far) latest Discworld board game: Clacks! If you have questions about this game recreating the race between Moist and the Grand Trunk company, get them in to us by mid-October 2024 by tagging us or using the hashtag #Pratchat81 on social media, or emailing us at chat@pratchatpodcast.com.

Scheduling issues pushed back our recording of #Pratchat80, so unfortunately we aren’t going to be able to bring you that discussion of Making Money until October. But it has been a very long time since we talked about Going Postal, so Ben thought you might like a recap to tide you over - plus a discussion of some of his favourite Discworld book covers, prompted by subscriber Ian! We’d love to hear about your favourite covers, from any of the various editions of Pratchett’s works! Let us know about them using the hashtag #Pratchat79A on social media, or get in touch via email or our subscriber Discord. You can find various covers of the Discworld books via the L-Space wiki, or via the Internet Speculative Fiction Database at isfdb.org. For the isfdb, make sure you choose “Fiction Titles” below the search box when searching for a specific book, then scroll down to the bottom of the list of editions and click the link which says “View all covers for [Book Title]”. Note that not all the covers Ben mentions are at those two sources; we’ve linked to other sources below where necessary. Ben mentions these favourite covers: The original cover for The Colour of Magic by Alan Smith Pratchett’s own original cover for The Carpet People (the image isn’t as small as Ben remembered) The new Penguin paperback designs by Leo Nickolls, incorporating Paul Kidby’s artwork, especially Moving Pictures. (The link is to the L-Space page Ben put together for these editions, which also gives you handy links to all the books in the wiki.) Paul Kidby’s covers for the first UK editions, in particular Night Watch, Going Postal and The Science of Discworld, plus the back cover of the original hardcover edition of The Last Hero Josh Kirby's covers for Eric (the original large format edition), Small Gods, and especially Reaper Man The cover for the graphic novel adaptation of Small Gods by Ray Friesen The Penguin 25th Anniversary edition of Hogfather, with art by BoomArtwork The American hardcover edition of Raising Steam, with art by Justin Gerard The Mai Més Catalan editions with covers by Marina Vidal, especially Equal Rites and The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents We discussed Going Postal way back in 2020, in #Pratchat38, “Moisten to Steal”, with guests Nicholas J Johnson and Lawrence Leung. We’ll be back in October with #Pratchat80 discussing Making Money with guest Stephanie Convery.

Recorded live at the Australian Discworld Convention in Tarntanyangga (Adelaide), Karen J Carlisle and Tansy Rayner Roberts join us on stage to discuss short fiction, Death and the (sort of) last of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld short stories, 2004’s “Death and What Comes Next”. Somewhere in time and space, a philosopher lies on his deathbed...and Death has come to collect. Only the philosopher isn’t convinced he’s real, or that any of this is even happening. Will “quantum” and cats in boxes be enough of an argument to dissuade Death from his job? Created for the now defunct Time Hunt puzzle website, “Death and What Comes Next” was written somewhere between 2002 and 2004. At under 1,000 words it’s one of Pratchett’s shorter pieces of fiction, and contains several jokes he’d go on to re-use elsewhere, as well as a word puzzle which provided a code word for Time Hunt site. You can read the story for free at the L-Space Web, which also hosts fan translations in many languages. Despite its placement in A Blink of the Screen, is this truly a Discworld story? Have you tried to solve the puzzle? How would you challenge Death to delay the time of your passing - and have you thought about what an encounter with the Discworld Death might be like for you? And is Death at his funniest here, or do you have other favourite Death moments? Join the conversation by using the hashtag #Pratchat79 on social media. Guest Tansy Rayner Roberts (she/her) is a Tasmanian author of sci-fi, fantasy, cosy crime and much, much more. Her essay series Pratchett’s Women was collected into a book, and her follow up series on Pratchett’s men, “Men Who Respect Witches”, can be found at the online magazine Speculative Insight. Her latest novel is a time travel comedy called Time of the Cat, and you can find Tansy online at tansyrr.com and as @tansyrr on social media. Tansy was also a guest on our previous live episode, “A Troll New World”, recorded at Nullus Anxietas 7 in 2019. Guest Karen J Carlisle (she/her) is a writer and illustrator based in Adelaide whose work spans Victorian mystery, steampunk, fantasy and yes, even (mostly) cosy murders. She has some new writing in the works, but her recent “Jack the Ripper thing” is Blood Ties, which you can find via her website, karenjcarlisle.com. You can also find her on Instagram, Twitter and various other social platforms as @karenjcarlisle. As usual, you can find notes and errata for this episode on our website. Next month it’s back to the books as we rejoin Moist von Lipwig for Making Money! Send us your questions about the book ASAP using the hashtag #Pratchat80.

It’s the final leg of the Long Journey as Joel Martin and Deanne Sheldon-Collins answer our Invitation! Both previous Long Earth guests return to discuss the fifth and final of Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter's collaborations, the 2016 novel The Long Cosmos. It’s 2070, and a message has been received across the Long Earth: “JOIN US.” Joshua Valienté hears it and gets one of his headaches, but he’s still mourning the death of his ex-wife Helen, so he rejects the call to adventure. He goes off alone into the High Meggers, despite multiple warnings that he’s too old for this shit. Meanwhile Nelson Azikiwe finds and loses a new family, and goes in search of Lobsang for help. And the Next find that the Invitation is more than two words long, and put into action far-reaching plans to bring everyone together to follow its instructions... The last of Pratchett's novels to be published, The Long Cosmos brings the series to a close. (If you need a recap, see our “The Longer Footnote” bonus episode.) Like the previous book, The Long Utopia, this one also takes place on a relatively small number of Earths - but it has its gaze fairly firmly fixed on the stars above, and wears its influences (especially Carl Sagan’s Contact) on its sleeve. Who got their epic first contact novel in our weird parallel worlds travelogue? Is this where you thought the story would go? What would your friends be able to predict about you if they kept a detailed spreadsheet? After five books, is this a satisfying conclusion? Join the conversation by using the hashtag #Pratchat78 on social media. Guest Joel Martin (he/him) is a writer, editor and podcaster now based in the UK. He previously hosted the writing podcast The Morning Bell, and produced The Dementia Podcast for Hammond Care. Joel’s previously been on the show to discuss The Long Earth, The Long Mars, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, making him our most frequent guest. He recommended the 1989 novel Hyperion by Dan Simmons, along with its sequel The Fall of Hyperion. (There are also two more novels in the Hyperion Cantos series.) Guest Deanne Sheldon-Collins (she/her) is an editor and writer in Australia’s speculative fiction scene, working for Aurealis magazine, Writer’s Victoria, the National Young Writer’s Festival, and as co-director of the Speculate festival. Deanne previously joined us for The Long War and The Long Utopia. She once again recommended Pratchat listener favourite, Martha Wells’ series The Murderbot Diaries, which consists of seven novels and novellas. The first is 2017’s All Systems Red. As usual, you can find notes and errata for this episode on our website. We’re off to Adelaide to be guests at the Australian Discworld Convention, where on Friday 12 July we’ll be recording a live episode with authors Tansy Rayner Roberts and Karen J Carlisle! We’ll be discussing Pratchett’s Discworld short fiction “Death and What Comes Next”, and probably more broadly how Pratchett writes about Death (and death). The story is available online at the L-Space Web. We’ll mostly be taking questions from the live audience, but you can also share yours via social media (if you’re quick!) using the hashtag #Pratchat79.

Our July episode about The Long Cosmos, fifth and final of the Long Earth series, is arriving on time! But we still thought you might appreciate a recap and reminder of what happened in the previous four novels. Was this helpful? Were you annoyed by the slight inaccuracies made for brevity? Do you double-dare us to do this for the Discworld series as whole? (Please don’t...) Let us know what you think, using the hashtag #PratchatPreviously2 on social media, or get in touch via email or our subscriber Discord. The previous recap, “The Long Footnote”, has a bit more detail on the first three books. Pick up the story in #Pratchat78, “One Step Beyond”, with Joel Martin and Deanne Sheldon-Collins discussing The Long Cosmos. It should be out by the time you finish listening to this recap!

Writer, filmmaker and creative director Lucas Testro joins Liz and Ben on a trip down under to the Other Place as we discuss Terry Pratchett's first ever published short story, 1963’s “The Hades Business”. Shady advertising man Crucible arrives home to find none other than old Nicholas Lucifer waiting for him in his study. But he hasn’t come to take him to eternal damnation. Instead, the Devil has a business proposition for Crucible: he want to make the public conscious, Hell-wise... At age thirteen (actually fourteen), the young Pratchett scored full marks for this story as a school assignment, encouraging him to try his luck with the editor of his three favourite spec fic magazines. And it worked! As the legend goes, he used the whopping £14 he was paid for the story to buy his first typewriter, and the rest is history...with a few bumps and detours along the way, of course. Was the young Pratchett a genius? Do you know any fourteen-year-olds who’ve been published alongside Michael Moorcock and Harry Harrison? Are we way too harsh on a story written by a teenager, or is it fair game as an exercise in working where the author of Night Watch and Nation got his start? And what afterlife would you sell - and with what slogan? Get down with this episode’s conversation using the infernal hashtag #Pratchat77. Lucas Testro (he/him) is writer, filmmaker and creative director based in Melbourne. He’s worked in theatre, television and short film, including the time travel farce I’m You, Dickhead and superhero comedy Capes. He’s worked in a variety of capacities with youth creative writing centre 100 Story Building. In 2022 he founded Social Storylab, a media production house that seeks to use persuasive marketing techniques for social good. (He’s kind of the anti-Crucible.) You can find Lucas online at manwithajetpack.com, and his excellent three-part audio documentary about mysterious Doctor Who writer Donald Cotton is available via donaldcotton.com or to stream on Soundcloud. As usual you’ll find comprehensive notes and errata for this episode on our website. Next episode we finish a long-term goal: the end of the Long Earth series, with the fifth and final novel, The Long Cosmos! We’ll be joined by previous Steppers Joel Martin and Deanne Sheldon-Collins. Get your questions in by ASAP using the hashtag #Pratchat78 on social media, or email us at chat@pratchatpodcast.com.

It’s the 25th of May, which can only mean one thing: Geek Pride Day! Or Towel Day. Or the Glorious 25th of May and the Battle of Treacle Mine Road...okay, that's three things. Why not add one more? This is the Pratchat Eeek Club: a bonus episode discussing Terry Pratchett-related topics selected by our "Eeek" tier subscribers. This year, the topics are: So it's been a few years of the Podcast. How are you guys holding up? How could one Discworld character use their skills and influence to change the patriarchal nature of the Disc? What is an unwritten Discworld story for you, e.g. maybe a head canon of a specific character, or a general arc of how things came into being or changed on the Disc? Why no gays? (On the Discworld.) Like learning how to not use magic is the whole point of magic, what have you had to learn not to do to make your life easier/better? What other storylines - other than The Watch - would you like to see turned into a television show? A big thank you to all our subscribers for making Pratchat possible, but especially to this year's Eeek Club contributors: Graham, Karl, Jing, the Caths, Jess and Ellie, Stephanie, Nathan and those we didn’t hear from. You'll find notes and errata for this episode on our website. Want to make sure we get through every Pratchett book - or even choose a topic for next year's Eeek Club? You can support Pratchat by subscribing for as little as $2 a month and get access to bonus stuff, including the exclusive supporter podcast Ook Club! Click here to find out more.