Discworld Monthly - Issue 175 - November 2011
Table of Contents:
1. Editorial
2. News
3. Readers' Letters
4. DiscTrivia
5. Review: An Evening with Terry Pratchett
6. Review: On Board The Wonderful Fanny
7. The End
1. Editorial
Welcome to issue 175. It's been another busy month this month for me personally, workwise and on Discworld. In the last week I spent two consecutive evenings in London in the company of Sir Terry Pratchett and a number of Discworld fans, first at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane for An Evening With Terry Pratchett and then on board The Wonderful Fanny for the official launch of Snuff.
Last month we mentioned the book The Spirit of Fantasy. The Works range of shops are selling it for 4.99 GBP.
Don't forget, if you visit a play or a talk and would like to let the world know about it, please feel free to email your review to info@discworldmonthly.co.uk and we will consider it for publication.
Also if you have written an article that you think we might want to include in the newsletter please feel free to email me at the address below. We will of course give credit for anything we use.
--
Jason Anthony (Editor) info@discworldmonthly.co.uk
William Barnett (Deputy Editor)
Richard Massey (Trainee Teacher)
2. News
Snuff (which was released in the UK on the 13th October) sold over 54,000 copies in the UK in its first three days. This not only makes it the UK best seller this week (more copies that 2nd and 3rd place combined) but also the quickest three day opening book of 2011 and the third best selling hardback of all time.
In the US Snuff landed at No. 21 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list and number 3 in the New York Times Bestsellers list for Hardback Fiction.
A Round-up of Snuff Reviews:
Dennis Pelton has written a review of Snuff at http://www.lookoutmountainbookstore.com
Snuff Review in The Washington Post http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=SNUFF175A
Snuff Review at Go386.com http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=SNUFF175B
Daily Express - Snuff Review http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=SNUFF175C
London Evening Standard Review http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=SNUFF175D
Guardian Review by AS Byatt http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=SNUFF175E
You can help support Discworld Monthly by purchasing your copy of Snuff from one of the links below (we earn a small commission on each copy sold):
UK Hardback (Amazon UK) -- http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?ISBN=038561926X
UK Kindle (Amazon UK) 5.99GBP as of 23rd October -- http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?ISBN=B00563M11M
US Hardback (Amazon.com) -- http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?USISBN=0062011847
US Kindle (Amazon.com) -- http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?USISBN=B00563M11M
Terry has issued a writ at the High Court against Paul Bamborough and Camel Productions, who had an option on film rights for Mort. Terry argues that the rights have now run out and is seeking a legal declaration to that effect.
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=MORT175
Terry has recently become a patron of the charity AbilityNet, a national charity helping disabled adults and children use computers and the internet by adapting and adjusting their technology.
Nigel Lewis, AbilityNet CEO said: "The Board of Trustees are thrilled and honoured to welcome Martha [Lane Fox - Ed] and Sir Terry as Patrons and know that with their commitment and enthusiasm, they will make an invaluable contribution to the Charity going forward."
http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/newsarticle109
The British Fantasy Society have recently awarded Terry the Karl Edward Wagner Special Award at the British Fantasy Awards 2011.
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=BFA175
The Guardian recently ran an article about Terry entitled - A Life in Writing: Terry Pratchett. The article mentions that Terry is having a statue made of the goddess Narrativia, the deity of narrative who smiles on writers.
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=GUARD175A
This month's SFX (Issue 215) features a multi-page interview with Terry ostensibly about Snuff but also featuring anecdotes about Terry's mother and the documentary Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die
Terry also makes it into SFX's Hot 50 (the top movers and shakers in sci-fi) at number 31.
In an article on the Varsity website called Authors and Their Illnesses Emma Smith writes how PCA has affected Terry.
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=VARSITY175A
In a recent interview with The Independent Terry mentions a book he has been reading (possibly in research for his next book, working title Happy Families). The book is called London Labour and the London Poor by Henry Mayhew it was released in 1865 and tells of the harsh conditions the poor lived under at the time.
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=ABE175A
Transworld have made some major changes to the official UK Terry Pratchett website at http://www.terrypratchett.co.uk The redesigned site features more information about Terry and is easier to navigate (now that they've removed the site's reliance on Flash player). More changes will take place over the coming months.
Terry has been awarded the status of Celebrity Charity Champion BMAC 2011. The award was given to Terry by his assistant Rob at the recent Drury Lane event An Evening With Terry Pratchett.
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=CHARITY175A
Terry was recently interviewed by the BBC in the BBC Breakfast television programme. You can see the six minute video at:
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=BBC175A
In his recent visit to the US Terry managed to fit in a final talk at Capclave. The almost hour long video can be found at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7CJRIi8kZ0
Terry appeared on the Radio 4 program Front Row with Mark Lawson on 18th October. In the interview he talked about the publication of Snuff. Terry partly explained the title, and spoke of the advantages of dictating rather than typing, which renders the experience more like storytelling. Terry said he had enjoyed writing the book, and mentioned his Jane Austen sequence. When asked he said his health was OK while he took his medications. He also spoke of the TV documentary which went out in June (Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die), and of the responses he had received. Finally he spoke of his father, and frankly about his own future.
Terry also appeared on the Channel 5 program Live with Gabby on Wednesday 19th October. You can view the programme on the Channel 5 website at:
http://discworldmonthly.co.uk?redir=GABBY175A
Discworld Dates...
This section will contain events that you need to keep in your diary. Entries will remain until they go out of date. New entries will include the word [New] next to them. If this section gets too large we will start pruning entries.
[AU] Monstrous Regiment will be performed by Brisbane Arts Theatre starting from 8th October.
Performances will be on:
- 8pm Saturday 8 October 2011 (opening night)
- 8pm Thursday 13 October 2011
- 8pm Friday 14 October 2011
- 8pm Saturday 15 October 2011
- 8pm Thursday 20 October 2011
- 8pm Friday 21 October 2011
- 8pm Saturday 22 October 2011
- 8pm Thursday 27 October 2011
- 8pm Friday 28 October 2011
- 8pm Saturday 29 October 2011
- 5pm Sunday 30 October 2011 (Halloween)
- 8pm Thursday 3 November 2011
- 8pm Friday 4 November 2011
- 8pm Saturday 5 November 2011
BOOKINGS: 3369 2344 / bookings@artstheatre.com.au BOOK ONLINE: www.artstheatre.com.au
[IE] Irish Discworld Convention 2011 (IDWCon11)
The second biennial Irish Discworld Convention will take place, once again, in the Falls Hotel, Ennistymon. Taking place from the 4th-7th of November 2011. For those of you who missed it the first time, and if you don't mind us saying so, it was a bit of a bit! If you would like to be there this time membership is now open and information on all sorts is available at our website!
With the news that Terry is unable to attend the Irish Discworld Convention, Bernard Pearson has stepped up to the mark and will now be the new guest of honour.
[UK and AU, Updated] The Broken Drummers and The Drummers Downunder are groups of fans that meet up monthly in the UK and Australia.
Unless otherwise stated the Broken Drummers meet on the first Monday of each month. In November this will be Monday 7th.
The Drummers Downunder (Perth) will be meeting from 6pm at The Vic Hotel, 226 Hay St, Subiaco, Australia. You can contact the organiser Daniel Hatton on daniel_j_hatton@yahoo.com.au
The Drummers Downunder (Sydney) meet at Maloneys Hotel on the corner of Pitt and Goulburn Streets (across the road from World Square), Sydney, Australia from 6.30pm. For more information contact Sue (AKA Granny Weatherwax) on kenworthys@yahoo.co.uk
The Broken Drummers meet at The Monkey Puzzle, Paddington, London, W2 1JQ, England at 7pm.
The Drummers are always happy to welcome new visitors.
[AU] For fans in Adelaide, The City of Small Gods Terry Pratchett Fan Club meets on the last Thursday of the month from 6.30pm at the Ed Castle, 233 Currie St. Details, discussions and organisation of extra events (such as play outings) are held on our email mailing list, so please sign up at https://groups.google.com/group/adelaide-discworld-fans
[UK, New] Going Postal will be on at the Guildhall Arts Centre from
30th November 2011 to 3rd December 2011, performed nightly at
7.30pm. Tickets are available from the Guildhall. For more
information, visit http://www.gdsgoingpostal.co.uk
[CA] Walterdale Playhouse will be performing Wyrd Sisters in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada from 30th November to 10th December 2011.
Tickets cost: 12.00 CAD to 16.00 CAD (depending on event date, time, and ticket type)
http://walterdaleplayhouse.com/?page_id=727
[UK] The Eighnnnnnn International Discworld Convention will take place from the 24th to 27th August 2012 at the Hilton Metropole in Birmingham.
For more information visit: http://www.dwcon.org
[DE, New] German Discworld Convention 2013
After successfully surviving the Assassins of Ankh-Morpork in 2011 we are taking the German Discworld Convention 2013 to their home continent Klatch! Make room in your schedule from October 3rd to 6th in 2013 for the fourth German Discworld Convention.
http://www.Discworld-Convention.de
Small Ads...
Please note, DWM has no way of checking the veracity or validity of
any of the items in our small ads section. As always, exercise
caution when giving out your details over the Internet. We
*strongly* recommend parental supervision for younger readers who
follow up any of these contacts.
Kerry-Ann KerryAnnEnergy@gmail.com writes: I have a copy of "Once More with Footnotes" for sale. It is signed by both Terry Pratchett and Omar Rayyan (dust jacket artist) on the title page. This book is a First Edition, first printing and is in a protective sleeve. I am led to believe that this was one of only 2,500 copies published for the World SF Convention Noreascon. If you want to buy this book from a book dealer the current starting price is 1250.00 GBP. All sensible offers considered. Photos etc can be got from me at the address above.
Barry Starr writes: I have recently purchased the Clarecraft Discworld chess pieces and am on the lookout for the matching board. Does anyone out there have one that they no longer require by any chance? Please contact me, Barry Starr on zen183316@zen.co.uk.
3. Readers' Letters
If you have any letters or comments, please email them to info@discworldmonthly.co.uk
We assume any correspondence is eligible for use in the newsletter unless otherwise stated, including the sender's email address. We may also edit your letters while taking snuff.
It is vitally important that you don't pass off other people's work as your own. If you use information from other resources please let us know so we can give proper credit.
* From: "Alan James" avjames2007@gmail.com
I have just finished reading Making Money again, and I came across a note I had put in the last time I read it and of course forgot all about it. It referred to a Russian device called a Water Integrator that functioned as a water analog computer, used from 1936 until the 1980's. After coming across this entry I looked a little further and found that the English also had one of these devices. The first can be found on Wikipedia and the second I did not record the location of but it should not be too hard to track down. Pratchett magic once again
DWM replies: Alan gets this month's Letter of The Month.
* From: "Fiona Hamilton" fee.hamilton@gmail.com
Loved Lin's account. I spent 15 years trying to convince my Mum to read Pratchett. Finally she read 22 of them in her last 18 months. It gave me such joy to share his divine humour with her.
* From: "Liz Lovell" lovellk@bigpond.com
OMG I can relate to Lin's experience (LOTM) - I have had people edge away from me on trains for the very same reason!
4. DiscTrivia
This month I'll take three random quotes from the Discworld series and ask you to name which book they came from.
The answers as usual can be found at the end of this issue.
5. Review: An Evening with Terry Pratchett
Reviewed by Jason Anthony
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London - Tuesday 18th October 2011.
My wife Lisa and I arrived with just a few minutes to spare (such is our timing) so after grabbing our tickets from the box office and finding the disabled entrance we settled ourselves down for a hopefully entertaining evening. Normally this wonderful looking theatre would be home to Shrek the Musical but for one night only there weren't any green ears to be seen.
Soon Terry and his able assistant Rob came on stage to a huge round of applause. Terry found a comfy sofa to sit on and a large brandy to nurse. Rob took on the role of interviewer and soon Terry and Rob were recounting adventures from their recent trips to the US and Austrialia.
Rob said that the US tour had been 'awesome' but Terry told him off for that. Terry's approximate words were "It's not awesome unless God and the Devil and their hosts came down to earth, otherwise it;s just great."
Rob had a large list of questions that fans had tweeted to him for Terry to answer and more often than not each question lead to a wonderful little anecdote or off on a small tangent to other subjects.
Terry talked about his visit to the set of Hobbiton where he was allowed more access than normal because the tour guide was a Discworld fan. Terry remarked that while he looked extensively around all the hobbit holes he never once found a privy. Terry also talked about the closest town to Hobbiton, Mata Mata, which was like the set of the Back to the Future movies. Terry needed some new scissors so Rob found the Scissor shop (a shop dedicated to selling only scissors).
The documentary Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die was another topic of conversation and Terry and Rob related how they were visiting Charlie Russell's (the documentary's director) mother's house when the programme was broadcast. Rob said that he was getting tweets at the rate of more than one a second and almost all of them positive.
Rob presented Terry with two awards; the first was the British Fantasy Award mentioned earlier in this issue and the second was the Celebrity Charity Champion also mentioned earlier.
Then before we knew it the show was over and Terry and Rob left the stage to a standing ovation. It was a hugely entertaining evening and great to see Terry and Rob have so much fun.
Lisa and I were invited (along with a number of other guests) to the green room after the show where we had chance to meet up with Terry and Rob who seemed relaxed but tired (they had only been back in the UK for a day and were still suffering from jetlag). We also spoke with Rod Brown of Prime Focus (ex The Mob) who are still set to make a television adaptation of Good Omens at some point. Also hopefully the new Watch television series which I am glad to report will have a heavy involvement from Terry and will also tie in with the book series. So for example if a character is killed in a book then that character will no longer appear in the TV series and vice versa.
We had a wonderful evening, full of great stories, lots of laughs and even some juicy information that I unfortunately cannot share with you.
6. Review: On Board The Wonderful Fanny
Reviewed by Jason Anthony
The Wonderful Fanny, Westminster Pier, London - Wednesday 19th October 2011.
Only a few short hours after visiting Drury Lane my wife and I were heading back into London again for the official book launch of Terry's latest novel Snuff. Learning from our mistakes of the previous night we caught a taxi to take us to Westminster Pier where the Wonderful Fanny was waiting to take us for a trip along the Thames.
We don't often go to London so we were really impressed how beautiful London looks at night. Westminster pier is located almost directly opposite the London Eye which looks beautiful lit up in blue light. Everywhere you look along the river is lit up. It really is wonderful.
After we boarded The Wonderful Fanny we ascended to the upper deck where the party was already underway. Wonderful canapes were being offered around and champagne was made available to all. As I needed to drive later that evening I declined and got a coke from the free bar instead.
After a while Terry and Rob arrived and started mingling with the assorted guests. The guests ranged from fans (like us), television producers from The Mob and Prime Focus, members of SFX editorial team, publishers and even a couple of famous faces, namely Tony Robinson and Michael Fenton Stevens. Terry also brought his wife Lin and his daughter Rhianna (a successful writer in the computer games industry).
Terry was whisked off to the front of the boat where a microphone had been set up. As Snuff is Terry's fiftieth book he was awarded a 50 year old bottle of cognac which immediately got requests for Terry to open it from the guests (Terry gracefully declined). It was then announced that in the first week of release Snuff had sold over 54,000 copies in the UK alone making it number one in the charts and also the quickest selling book of 2011. Terry then thanked everyone for coming including his fans, some of whom were still sober! Terry, still tired from his US trip and extremely busy schedule, got quite emotional in his thanks which just made him more human.
After the speeches the party resumed and soon after the boat set off along the Thames. We travelled as far as Tower Bridge and then back again to Westminster. The view from The Wonderful Fanny was great.
Bernard "The Cunning Artificer" Pearson was on the boat and was handing out some of The Discworld Emporium's Discworld branded Snuff tins (filled with snuff). I got a tin of Sweet Raspberry Snuff and Lisa got a tin of Double Thunder Snuff. The tins look great. One party member was busy tweeting that he was still sneezing the next evening after taking a pinch of snuff at the party!
As we got back to dock three large trays full of bacon baguettes were supplied and everyone dived in. While the canapes were great, the bacon was beautiful.
Soon it was time for us to leave. We said our thanks for being invited and made our way off The Wonderful Fanny and headed home feeling rather tired but having had a great time chatting away as we floated down the Thames.
7. The End
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