Discworld Monthly Issue 221 October 2015
Table of Contents:
1. Editorial
2. News
3. Events
4. Readers' Letters
5. DiscTrivia
6. Review: Coverama - Alternate Worlds
7. Competition Reminder: The Shepherd's Crown
8. Review: Micro Art Studio - Granny Weatherwax
9. The End
1. Editorial
Welcome to issue 221. We have to thank the lovely Amy Simmonds from Ink A Doodle Do for the wonderful Luggage she designed for us to use as a logo on the Discworld Monthly website.
You can see the new logo in all its finery at discworldmonthly.co.uk and find out more about Ink A Doodle Do at: discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/724
Waterstones have released a video from the London launch of The Shepherd's Crown. See Rob Wilkins and various fans talk about the book and what it means to them... You may even catch a few seconds of yours truly somewhere near the middle.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJqBiGL7MoI
A petition has been set up requesting Salisbury create a statue in honour of Sir Terry Pratchett. In the last couple of weeks the petition has gained over 1,500 supporters. You can visit the petition and sign it yourself at:
discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/720
The BBC has a report on the progress of the petition at:
discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/719
Rachel Rowlands has been very busy recently creating a document that allows you to quickly and easily work out if your Discworld novels are first editions or not. The guide entitled "An Idiot's Guide to Identifying Discworld Novel First Editions" can be read at: discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/704
Rachel is planning to follow this up with two more "first edition" guides for Terry's non-Discworld novels.
The Discworld Collectors Guild Archive is an excellent, massive collection of pictures and information about the myriad pieces of Discworld Merchandise (both official and unofficial) that have been sold / auctioned / given away over the years.
Find out more at: www.facebook.com/DiscworldCollectorsArchive
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
- Rachel Rowlands (Trivia Writer / Interesting Stuff Finder)
- William Barnett (Deputy Editor / Proofreader)
- Amy Simmonds (Artist in Residence)
- Richard Massey (Tea boy in absentia somewhere near Ascot?)
2. News
Announced on the 27th September 2015 - Terry Pratchett has bequeathed one million Australian dollars to the University of South Australia. The university students will now benefit from Pratchett's generosity in perpetuity, thanks to his close relationship with vice-chancellor David Lloyd.
"Last time we saw Terry, we went to his house in the UK last year and the kids were out feeding the sheep," Professor Lloyd said. "The next day he gave a letter to (manager) Rob Wilkins and in the letter he said he wanted to give this to the university. It was only opened on his birthday in April this year," Professor Lloyd told The Australian.
discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/725
Rob Wilkins visited Australia to give a master class entitled "Terry Pratchett - The Art and Business of Creative Writing" to celebrate the new "Sir Terry Pratchett Memorial Scholarship."
The Shepherd's Crown book sales information in the UK:
On week ending 04/09/2015, The Shepherd's Crown was at number one in the Bookseller charts with 52,860 copies sold. It was still number one on week ending 11/09/2015 selling an additional 27,386 copies. By 18/09/2015 it had dropped to third place selling 13,764 additional copies (it was overtaken by Everyday Super Food by Jamie Oliver and Make Me by Lee Child).
In total according to the official figures The Shepherd's Crown sold 94,010 UK copies in its first three weeks of publication. The Shepherd's Crown was still number 1 in the Children and Young Adult charts.
We would like to thank Colin Smythe for providing this information.
Some more articles and reviews of The Shepherd's Crown have been released since last issue. Below is a round up of them. Remember to read the novel first... The links will contain spoilers.
Australia's "Readings" has a heartfelt article entitled "Reflecting on the final Discworld novel":
discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/705
ars technica featured a very nice article entitled: "The Shepherd's Crown: A quiet end to the Discworld series". It is definitely spoiler heavy to beware.
discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/706
Issue 266 of SFX magazine (with Rick from The Walking Dead on the cover), out now, features a good review (on page 108) of The Shepherd's Crown.
The Huffington Post has a review of the Shepherd's Crown at:
discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/714
The Syndey Morning Herald has two very different reviews of the Shepherd's Crown - read both and make up your own mind on which is better.
discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/715
discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/716
"In memory of Terry Pratchett" is an article written by Tracy Briseno of Ames Public Library about how she his trying to make The Shepherd's Crown last for as long as possible:
amestrib.com/news/memory-terry-pratchett
Monstrous Productions' Night Watch that we reviewed last issue has announced that they have generated just over 4,020 GBP for Alzheimer's Research.
This impressive figure takes the total they have raised since they formed in 2013 to over 16,000 GBP. What an amazing achievement.
We can't wait to see their next two productions in February and August next year.
discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/708
Terry Pratchett, Jane Austen, and the definition of literature is the name of an article written by Australia's The Conversation with regards to Jonathan Jones' attack on Terry Pratchett last month in the Guardian newspaper.
discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/707
Monstrous Productions have released a picture of their cast re-enacting Paul Kidby's Night Watch cover (which in turn is a tribute to the Rembrandt painting also called The Night Watch).
discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/710
Random House Australia have produced a tribute video for Terry featuring Discworld fans holding Terry's quotes. Disappointingly only a small percentage of them were chosen to be in the video. This is a shame considering how much effort some people went to.
discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/709
Stephen Briggs has set up a new website for his next production "The Shakespeare Codex". The play will be based on the non-science bits from The Science of Discworld 2.
Tickets go on sale in January 2016 and the production will take place from 6th - 9th April at The Unicorn Theatre Abingdon. Keep watching the website for the most up to date information.
The Telegraph have set up a page with the self-explanatory title "Terry Pratchett: 50 best quotes"... It's a fun read for any fan of Terry Pratchett.
discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/711
Den of Geek have uploaded a fun article entitled Revisiting Terry Pratchett's Johnny Maxwell books in which they look back at Only You Can Save Mankind, Johnny And The Dead and Johnny and the Bomb.
discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/712
Terry Pratchett is one of the authors featured in The Map of Literature in Vargic's Miscellany of Curious Maps: Mapping out the Modern World by Martin Vargic. Images of the map can be seen here: discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/713
A poster of the map is included in the book. Vargic's Miscellany of Curious Maps will be released on the 24th September and will be available from: www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/071818114X/87
Artist Random's Art has created an image of Sir Terry on an outside wall of Buckley Town Council (the wall used to be a bus shelter according to Google Maps). The picture features a head and shoulders image of Terry and a ginger cat. The quote states: "This isn't life in the fast lane, it's life in the oncoming traffic."
To find the picture visit: 12 Buckley Town Council, Mold Rd, Buckley, CH7 2JB
Is Buckley the new Brick Lane?
discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/717
In a recent vote by Best Fantasy Books HQ of readers' favourite fantasy characters Discworld performed really well... They received over 21,000 votes, representing 359 characters from 136 series.
Discworld romped home taking the top three places and then continued to include seven plus one characters overall.
The winner was, of course, Death closely followed by Granny Weatherwax and Sam Vimes. The full list of Discworld characters is included below:
1st - Death (1023 votes)
2nd - Granny Weatherwax (720 votes)
3rd - Sam Vimes (678 votes)
24th - Havelock Vetinari (227 votes)
29th - Rincewind (209 votes)
33rd - Tiffany Aching (169 votes)
44th = - Carrot Ironfoundersson (126 votes)
64th - Moist Von Lipwig (81 votes)
The full list can be read at: discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/718
openDemocracy has an article entitled "Terry Pratchett's Discworld: where we are all heroes" in which the author of the article talks about how Discworld is populated by real people (it recognises there are real heroes) but mostly it's about real people with real life struggles:
discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/721
Bernard "The Cunning Artificer" Pearson has decided to write some of his stories down. If you have ever had the pleasure of being in Bernard's company for any length of time you will know he really is a master story teller. Bernard's first missive about the "Floating Dutchman" is a story I've heard on more than one occasion but it is great to see it written down. You can read and digest Bernard's stories at bernardpearson.me/
3. Events
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.
From issue 190 onwards recurring monthly meetings have been moved to their own area at the bottom of the dates section.
[IRL] The Irish Discworld Convention is just around the corner. The Watch Open Weekend will be invading Roundworld from the 2nd - 5th October in the Cork International Hotel. The usual array of talks, games and madness will be held with a distinctive Watch theme. Tickets are still on sale for both the con and the gala dinner but they are going faster than a Feegle after some Sheep Liniment.
We hope to see you in Ireland to share some old memories and create some new ones. Keep in touch with us at:
www.facebook.com/groups/idwcon/
[ES, New] Barcelona SPAIN. A production of Wyrd Sisters is being performed by L'pin Barcelona Les Corts on the 4th October. More information can be obtained from their Facebook page www.facebook.com/bruixesdeterrypratchett
[Channel Islands] Guards! Guards! Will be shown in Guernsey, Channel Islands this October.
The performance will be at the Princess Royal Centre for Performing Arts, on the 5th and 6th October 2015, at 7:30pm.
Proceeds are going to the Orangutan Foundation, of which Sir Terry Pratchett was of course a trustee.
Tickets cost 10 GBP / 8 GBP Concessions and can be purchased from www.guernseytickets.gg or call 74999
[UK] Maskerade will be performed by Act II on the 17th October at 14:30 and 19:30 at the South Holland Centre, Spalding. Tickets 9.50GBP (8GBP concessions), groups of 10+ 7.00GBP each. Available from the South Holland Centre Box Office 01775 764777 or www.southhollandcentre.co.uk
[UK] Chorlton Players will be performing Mort from Thursday 22nd October - Saturday 24th October 2015 at 7:30pm at St Werburgh's Parish Hall, St Werburgh's Rd, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, M21 0TL
chorltonplayers.com/?page_id=33
Online tickets account for approximately 60% of our overall capacity. Once this limit is reached, the remaining 40% will only be available for purchase on the door on a first come first served basis. In order to guarantee entry, we highly recommend purchasing your tickets in advance online via the link above.
[UK] For all the Farscape / Vintage Sci-Fi fans out there, Starbase 24 are presenting The Ninth Banquet in Peterborough on October 23rd and 24th. The Friday features vintage sci-fi, hot buffet, quiz and disco and the Saturday features a Farscape-themed 3 course meal, entertainment, auction, raffle and disco with special guest: Virginia Hey.
The 75GBP weekend ticket or 57GBP (Saturday only) ticket includes a formal photo with Virginia Hey with profits going to Macmillan Cancer Support.
[UK] Wyrd Sisters is being performed by Uppingham Theatre Company from Thursday 29th - Saturday 31st October 2015. Tickets cost 10 GBP including 2 GBP charity donation to Rutland Reminders. Tickets are available in person only from Uppingham Sports and Books, 9 High Street East, Uppingham and online at wegottickets.co.uk
[UK] Making Money will be performed by Thalian Theatre Group from Thursday 12th November to Saturday 14th November at Townsgate Theatre Basildon - Mirren Studio.
Tickets cost 10 GBP, Concessions 8.50GBP, booking fee of 1GBP applies.
Phone 01268 465465
Or online at: discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/696
[NI, New] Wyrd Sisters will be performed by The Bart Players on 25th, 26th, 27th & 28th November at 7.30pm each evening.
Tickets are 10GBP for adults (18-65) and 8GBP for concessions (under 18 / over 65 / students). Group rates are negotiable.
The venue is the Canon Lindsay Hall, Stranmillis, Belfast.
Tickets can be purchased at www.ticketsource.co.uk/bartplayers
[UK] Wyrd Sisters will be performed in Hexham at The Main Theatre by Queen's Hall Theatre Club from Thursday 26th - Saturday 28th November 2015 at 7:30pm
Tickets cost 10 GBP, 9 GBP concessions and 7 GBP under 18s.
discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/702
[UK] Sadly there will be no Discworld Emporium-run Hogswatch event this year, but there will be a fan-run, much more low key "Gathering of Loonies - Winter Event" on the same days, November 27th - 29th in Wincanton. More news will be provided as we are given it. The fans organising the event have set up a Facebook group at: www.facebook.com/groups/373578522834654/
[DE, New] We invite all the Witches and denizens of the Chalk to the 5th German Discworld Convention which will take place at Castle Ludwigstein from May 18th to 21th in 2017.
More information will be released on our Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/ScheibenweltConvention
Recurring monthly meetings:
[UK] The Broken Drummers meet at The Monkey Puzzle, Paddington, London, W2 1JQ, England at 7pm. For more information contact Helen Nicholls on helennicholls@yahoo.co.uk
Unless otherwise stated the Drummers meet on the first Monday of each month.
The Drummers are always happy to welcome new visitors. You can find out more about the Drummers at www.brokendrummers.org/
[Perth, AU] The Perth Drummers have changed their name. They are now known as the Treacle Mining Corporation in honour of their beloved state. They still meet up to celebrate the works of author Sir Terry Pratchett, and welcome any fans of science fiction and fantasy.
Join them for their monthly discussion of Discworld, Terry Pratchett and all things sci-fi and fantasy. They meet the first Monday of each month, subject to holidays, and all are welcome.
The group meets up at Carpe Cafe, 526 Murray Street, Perth, WA. Meeting at a cafe means they are under-18 friendly!
For details follow them on Twitter @Perth_Drummers, Instagram perth_drummers, and Facebook www.facebook.com/groups/Perth.Drummers/
Otherwise message Alexandra Ware directly at alexandra.ware@gmail.com
Unless otherwise stated the group meets up on the first Monday of each month.
[AU] Sydney Drummers normally meet on the first Monday of every month.
We meet at the NEW venue, 3 Wise Monkeys, 555 George Street, Sydney, 2000 from 6:30pm
For more information contact Sue (AKA Granny Weatherwax) on kenworthys@yahoo.co.uk
[UK] On the first Friday of every month there will be a meeting of WOTS - Omnian Temperance Society - Wincanton branch - to be held at The Bear Inn from 7pm. New members or visitors from other places always welcome.
discworldmonthly.co.uk/url/WOTS182
[Adelaide, AU] The City of Small Gods is a group for fans in Adelaide and South Australia. We have regular monthly dinner and games nights, longer games days, plus play outings, craft-y workshops, and fun social activities throughout the year. For more info and to join our mailing list, visit: cityofsmallgods.org.au
[Brisbane, AU] The Pratchett Partisans meet monthly at either Brisbane or Indooroopilly to eat, drink and chat about all things Pratchett. For more info about their next meetup, check out: www.facebook.com/groups/pratchettpartisans/
[UK] The A 2 Z Science Fiction Group meet from 8pm on the 3rd Thursday in the month in Chelmsford. They are happy to discuss anything from Asimov to Zelazny [passing Pratchett somewhere in the middle - Ed]. They meet at the United Brethren Pub, New Writtle Street, Chelmsford, Essex, CM2 0LF
www.facebook.com/groups/1685382495015481
4. 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 edit your letters by covering them in honey and feeding them to next door's cat.
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: "Theronody Krishna Isley" akrishnaisley@hotmail.com
I am curious, are there any Discworld fans in Richmond, VA, USA? I don't know a lot of folks where I live and feel like a circle trying to fit in to a triangle shape. I would like to meet people with mutual interests. I have some Discworld RPGs and it would be fun to play them for once.
5. DiscTrivia
This month we are back with five challenging trivia questions for you... This month all the questions relate to Moving Pictures. Good luck.
The (hopefully correct) answers can be found at the end of this issue.
6. Review: Coverama - Alternate Worlds
Reviewed by Jason Anthony.
Marc Simonetti may not be a name many of you are familiar with - however you may well have seen some of his works as he illustrated the 2014 Discworld calendar and also the cover of the latest Discworld Companion, The Turtle Moves.
Marc Simonetti is to French Discworld covers what Paul Kidby is to UK covers. Marc tries to capture the essence of the characters and the story in his covers. His Discworld work is often full of movement and is somewhere between the ultra realistic characters of Paul Kidby and the more playful characters of Josh Kirby.
"Coverama - Alternate Worlds" is, as you would expect from an artist, a beautifully illustrated book. It features both English and French texts and in many cases describes the fascinating communications between author and artists.
Marc hasn't just worked on Discworld though, the book also features some of his art from G R R Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series (Game of Thrones), H P Lovecraft's Arkham universe, and many role-playing systems. Each page is of the book is a joy to look at. Marc's work covers different styles - his Westeros work is very different to his Discworld work.
Our copy was a signed limited edition copy and features on the title page a hand-drawn Cohen The Barbarian (we have seen other copies with Vimes on the page, Marc does a range of characters).
This is a truly wonderful book and well worth having if you are a fan of Discworld-inspired art. Each picture is shown in full detail without being covered by book title or author name. If you are fans of other fantasy and science fiction you will love to see Marc's other work as well.
You can see samples of Marc's art and more details about Coverama at Marc's website:
discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/722
You can purchase this lushly illustrated manuscript direct from: discworldmonthly.co.uk/uid/723
The book costs 50 GBP and is well worth every penny. Grab your copy while you still can.
7. Competition Reminder: The Shepherd's Crown
Last issue we purchased two copies of The Shepherd's Crown to give away. One for people in the UK and one for people resident outside of the UK. The Shepherd's Crown is Terry Pratchett's last novel and will in time, I am sure, be considered a classic.
In order to win a copy of The Shepherd's Crown we asked you to provide the answer to two simple questions.
You still have a couple of weeks to enter the competition. So far we have had lots more people from the UK enter than those outside the UK. So don't forget to take part - send your answers to the two questions, along with your postal address, to competitions@discworldmonthly.co.uk before 21st October 2015. Your address will only be used for entering you in the correct draw and for sending out your prize should you be one of our two lucky winners. Once prizes are sent out all address details will be destroyed. Entries received after the closing date or sent to any other address will be ignored. No more than one entry per person will be accepted. Failure to answer the questions or provide your postal address will prevent you from being entered into the competition. Multiple entries will be banned. Answers to the questions must not be posted to any websites before the competition ends. The judges' decision is final.
8. Review: Micro Art Studio - Granny Weatherwax
Reviewed by Jason Anthony
The first thing I noticed with the new Granny Weatherwax bust from Micro Art Studio is that it is a different colour to the previous three (Death, Rincewind and Sam Vimes). Whereas the previous busts were a beige colour Granny is definitely grey. The second thing I noticed is that her hat pins are actually metal. I'm guessing the plastic would be too weak to make so thin.
Granny is once again based on Paul Kidby's definitive paintings of mistress Weatherwax. She has been captured mid scorn. Having now placed her side by side with Rincewind (whom I had previously mistaken for Granny) I can see there really is no resemblance, although both pieces are almost identical in height.
Under the wide brim of her impressive pointy hat she has her hair tied back in a very tight no nonsense bun. Her expression is wonderfully stern with her high necked collar and cloak clasped together with a crescent cloak pin. She really is a figure not to be messed with. One slight problem is you can (on our piece) see signs of glue where the top of the hat has been stuck on. There also appear to be a couple of very minor imperfections in the mould.
Apart from the obvious change in colour Granny fits in perfectly with the previous pieces. Granny is available unpainted and in a slightly more expensive (and very impressive looking) metallised finish.
Granny isn't listed on the Micro Art Studio website yet so the colour may get corrected before release.
Visit shop.microartstudio.com/ and keep an eye out for Granny.
9. The End
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The Shepherd's Crown:
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Raising Steam:
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- US Paperback: discworldmonthly.co.uk/USISBN/0804169209
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The Long Utopia:
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The Long Mars:
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- US Paperback: discworldmonthly.co.uk/USISBN/0062297309
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TURTLE RECALL: The Discworld Companion
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- UK Kindle: www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00A3BO8MM/87
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