Newsletter 6 - March 2025 - Better Than a Poke in the Eye

1. Editorial

Welcome to issue six.

I don't want to make a habit of reporting deaths in our newsletter. But once again it is my sad duty to report the passing of Colin Woodhouse. Colin was a regular visitor to the Discworld events in Wincanton and was a true gentleman. Colin always came over as a slightly rough northerner but once you spoke to him you soon realised he had a heart of gold. #GNU Colin. #MindHowYouGo.

As this newsletter comes out just a few weeks after the 10th anniversary of Terry's Death in 2015, three of our items in this newsletter are about remembering Terry.

We include information about what Rachel and I did in the aftermath of the news and Colin Smythe writes for a BBC article about Terry.

On a less sombre note, Rachel and I will be visiting the Discworld in Cardiff this month when Peculiar Productions will perform Maskerade and then just a couple of days after we will be visiting London on Terry's birthday to see Marc Burrows' The Magic of Terry Pratchett. (We've seen it a few times before but it's always worth watching. Marc is both funny and entertaining and the show has just a little bit of magic). This time, Marc will be joined by a couple of special guests on stage as the show celebrates Terry's 77th Birthday. Tickets are still available for this event via Marc's website.

If you live near Crowborough, the Crowborough players will be performing Maskerade at the end of May. Tickets have just gone on sale and if you want to go to the Sunday performance you can use the code THEYRISEUP to get £1 off your order.

On Good Omens news, the latest update from the Graphic Novel Kickstarter has mentioned that the foreword by Michael Sheen and David Tennant will no longer be possible and the afterword by John Hamm will also not happen. It is a shame but we still look forward to reading the graphic novel which we now believe will be out this summer.

We forgot to mention in the articles below that A Blink of a Screen got a paperback re-release this week with a cover that ties in with A Stroke of the Pen.
To order your self a copy, we have it available through our affiliate links or our bookshop.

BUY: A Blink of the Screen

Note: We fully expect A Slip of the Keyboard to get the same treatment later in the year.

With Terry's birthday occurring at the end of the month, Penguin Classics will be releasing the annotated edition of Night Watch. We advertised this a fair while ago so we has sort of forgotten about it. The Penguin Classics edition of Night Watch includes a new foreword by Rob Wilkins and an introduction and annotations by Dr David Lloyd and Dr Darryl Jones, contextualising the novel and Pratchett's far-reaching legacy for new readers and current fans alike. To pre-order a copy, we have it available through our affiliate links and our bookshop.

BUY: Night Watch - Penguin Classic

On a personal note, our home and office is on the move. Everything we own including the archive of Discworld things, is boxed up and ready to move towns. Wish us luck as moving is one of the most stressful things anyone can do.

And finally, six years ago today, a slightly hungover Rachel posted as Discworld Monthly that we would be running a Discworld Convention in Wales in 2020 in the fictional town of Llanbobl. This April fools joke backfired when people thought we were serious and thus Llamedos Holiday Camp was born. We're three physical events and one online event in and are currently planning our fourth event for March next year. Tickets will go on sale on 1st July. With the event having raised over £15,000 its kind of funny how things work out.

Jason & Rachel

2. News Feed

Our news feed always has the most up to date information. Click on the titles below to read the full articles on our website.

BBC has published an article by Colin Smythe about remembering Terry.

The BBC have recently published an article written by Colin Smythe (Terry's original publisher and agent) about how remembers Terry. From the very first meeting where Terry was interviewing Colin about a book, through the publishing of The Carpet People, to the decision that Terry needed a bigger publisher.

It's a fascinating read for Terry Pratchett fans. [Read More]

We remember Terry Pratchett 10 years on from his death in 2015

We remember our friend Sir Terry Pratchett who took hold of Death's hand on this day in 2015. We still speak his name. GNU Terry Pratchett

It's been ten years since we received the fateful news that Terry Pratchett had lost his battle with PCA. Those three tweets that informed up that Terry had taken Death's hand and walked with him across the dark sands.

A decade later and we still actively speak his name.

“Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?”

We often wonder what Terry would make of the Interesting Times that we are currently living in. It would make for an interesting story if anyone would believe it... [Read More]

3. Articles

We have an extensive archive of articles we have written in our archive index

Terry's Last Tweets

What happened to us when we heard of Terry's Passing.

We look back at the time, ten years ago, when those three tweets came through informing the world that Terry had passed and how the news affected us in the immediate aftermath.

[Read More]