The Truth Shall Make Ye Fred
The Truth Shall Make Ye Fred
--
Jason Anthony (Editor) <>
William Barnett (Deputy Editor)
Richard Massey (Under Lesser Sub Deputy Assistant Editor)
The website for ARENA Arts & Entertainment Inc. is now up and running and can be found at: http://www.arenaentertainment.com.au
ARENA are also very proud at being able to present Monstrous Regiment in July (see last month's issue or the web site for full details).
Discworld Beer: Special Offer
Bursar Vixen have slashed the price of their Discworld beer, Old Kingdom. For a limited period, they are offering this unusual beer, brewed with coriander to a 3,000-year-old recipe, at a 25% discount. This beer's label features a wonderful image of Teppic by Paul Kidby.
More details from: http://www.bursarvixen.com/beer.php3
Hilton Amateur Theatrical Society will be performing Mort on June 18th and 19th 2004. The venue is Hilton Village Hall, Back Lane, Hilton, Derbyshire. Tickets will be on sale from the end of April priced at 4.50 GBP (adult) and 4.00 GBP (concessions). Details at http://www.hilton-hats.co.uk
Terry Pratchett Archive on Display by Colin Smythe.
As it was becoming too large and bulky for me to keep at home, about two years ago I gave my main collection of Terry Pratchett's books (in about 30 languages), together with publicity and merchandise material to the University of London Library in Malet Street, where it is known by the rather cumbersome title of "The Colin Smythe Terry Pratchett Archive" and continues to grow as I add new publications, etc. to it.
One of the librarians, Margaret Blackburn, has been cataloguing the archive (on a part-time basis) for the past 18 months, and the Library has now put on display a 'taster' preview of some of the material from the collection. This Pratchett Preview will be open to the public until 5 June 2004.
Mrs Blackburn has so far catalogued nearly eleven hundred of the books in the collection, and has also started work on the models, alcoholic beverages, audio and video material, games (computer and otherwise), t-shirts, jewellery, jigsaws and other Pratchettiana.
Information on how to get to the display in the Senate House, the catalogue and some pictures can be found at the following address http://www.ull.ac.uk/exhibitions/pratchett/exhibition.shtml Clicking on the images leads to relevant pictures.
I hope a much larger exhibition will be shown in the Library's main display area next year.
The Unseen Theatre Company will be performing Maskerade at Bakehouse Theatre, 255 Angas St Adelaide, Australia from April 30 to May 15 Wed. to Sat. at 8pm. (Preview Night April 29 - all tickets 10 AUD) for other performances Adults 15 AUD, Concession 12 AUD, Groups of 10 or more people 10 AUD.
For bookings call Betty on 82962004 (7am to 7pm, 7 days) or BASS 131246
More Information: http://www.unseen.com.au
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.
Vicki Pimlott <> writes: Last month I emailed to advertise some Discworld items I had for sale.
Well since then it has been a nightmare. I am currently sat in my local library and have had to register for a new email account, and I will be conducting all my sales from this very chair.
My sincerest apologies to those who emailed me, especially if you got caught by the virus (W32/Netsky-Q). All those with anti-virus run it now!! It has caused me nothing but grief.
However, those of you who are still interested I would be very grateful if you could email me at this new address, which I can assure you is virus free. It would be helpful if you could let me know what kinds of things you are interested in. I have books, figurines and even a jigsaw! (My old address was <>)
Bradfield, Mel (Aspire)" <> writes: I wondered if anyone knows where I can purchase 2 Jigsaw puzzles: Discworld Mapp & Reaper Man. They were made by Spears Games.
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 and stare blankly into space waiting for inspiration.
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.
The best letter of the month will receive a Kiss the Cook print supplied by Bonsai Trading. Bonsai Trading is the Discworld store that brings you Clarecraft figurines, diaries & calendars, Thud and much more. http://bonsai.discworldmonthly.org
*
* From: "DLLU - Dansk Ludo & Lancier Union" <>
*
I just thought you guys might like to know that the Discworld
Novels are now beginning to be released in Danish! Until now they
were only available here in English - which I really don't mind,
'cause they are so difficult to translate, and I prefer to read
books in the original language whenever possible (i.e. English,
German, Norwegian or Swedish for me...). The Danish versions (of
so far TCOM and TLF) aren't that great either, but still, if
Terry's genius can reach an even bigger audience that way and
perhaps make more Danish readers interested in giving the English
versions a go, then by all means carry on...
*
* From: "Pamela Munt" <>
*
I would like to get on the band wagon to encourage Terry not to
miss Adelaide. As Theresa Dolman says, we do plenty of Pratchett
stuff here. Apart from all the stuff she does, she is right in
saying that my theatre company was formed purely to produce
Pratchett plays. We have produced Mort twice, Guards! Guards!, Men
At Arms, Lords and Ladies, The Fifth Elephant, The Truth, Pratchett
Pieces (our own adaptation of his short stories), we are doing
Maskerade now and will hopefully (not quite arranged yet) be doing
an Australian premiere of Night Watch in October. So why are we
ignored? He's flying straight past us from Melbourne to Perth and
not stopping off??????? Hardly fair!!
DWM replies: In the past when similar situations occurred we found that where Terry visits is decided by which book stores decide to invite him. I suspect that he simply wasn't invited to visit Adelaide.
*
* From: "David Ridgway" <>
*
The mystery of no more Discworld diaries has been solved, put to
rest etc. On the same day that I received Discworld Monthly I also
found this e-mail in my inbox:
"Apart from Terry's thoughts, more important was the fact that Paul Kidby didn't have the time to work on one - he's been so behindhand on Art of Discworld which is being published a year late as result, that no way could he do the necessary artwork needed.
Colin Smythe"
Thank you Mr Smythe. So all we need now is for Mr Kidby to work faster and Mr Pratchett to think faster and then maybe a 2006 diary could appear! Please?
*
* From: "Steve Elliott" <>
*
Re: Discworld Diaries
Unfortunately, Terry has made it clear that in *his* opinion, there is not enough material and/or time to work on future diaries. I'd love to see some more, but on the whole I'd rather have the ones which we have which are high quality, than have a "oh, great maker, let's produce a diary to stop them moaning" publication which would not be to the same high standards.
*
* From: "Chris Alderton" <>
*
I have found possibly the earliest reference to Borogravia - In the
Colour of Magic!
When Rincewind first meets Twoflower in the Mended Drum, he tries to talk to Twoflower in High Borogravian amongst other languages.
I'm looking forward to Terry's visit to Sydney in November
*
* From: "W. G. T. Walker" <>
*
Juliette Harrison started something in DWM 82 when she described
Borogravia, the setting of Monstrous Regiment, as "never heard of
before". In DWM 83, Rach found a mention in Carpe Jugulum, and in
DWM 84, Yasmin cited the Mapp, The Fifth Elephant and Night Watch.
I've spotted yet another mention in The Thief of Time where PTerry
describes Ankh-Morpork 'chocolate' (brown suet-and-tallow-and-
unmentionables stuff); "according to the food standards of the
great chocolate centres in Borogravia and Quirm, Ankh-Morpork
chocolate was formally classed as 'cheese', and only escaped,
through being the wrong colour, being defined as tile grout'."
So... international food standards and 'real' chocolate made of cocoa liquor and real cream ... would that place Borogravia somewhere near Belgium on the Roundworld map?
*
* From: "Jim Martin" <>
*
Residing over here in North Carolina, I'd be hard pressed to attend
[Bernard Pearson's - Wincanton May Event] (!), but would none the
less be almost unhealthily interested in getting a book signed "to
me" by the author. A paperback would be fine, and any of the
Discworld books would be fine. If you can help me with this, I
would of course be happy to reimburse any costs in book-
acquisition, mailing the thing, etc.
As a miniature kite maker, I'd also be pleased to make you a Discworldish mini-kite, perhaps inspired by one of the several mentions of kites in the books.
*
* From: "Luca Ciarniello" <>
*
In response to Lynda Flanagan last month. For the UU degree you
have to browse the internet site of another well-known collaborator
of Pratchett: Stephen Briggs! go to
http://www.cmotdibbler.com/cmot.html
All you have to do in order to get the degree is well explained.
*
* From: "Sachi Schott" <>
*
Re: Jonathan Sutton's letter about Wynkyn de Worde...
Terry Pratchett seems to collect little snippets of information like that (which he then seamlessly weaves into that rich tapestry which is the Discworld) like other people collect elastic bands.
It's incredible! I've gotten some pretty withering glares and eye-rolling from my parents when, one too many times, I've turned to my younger sister in the middle of a conversation and said "Oh! Like in (insert title of Discworld book here)!" Needless to say, they've never read anything Discworld - what's wrong with them?! I never had any cause to suspect they're really alien pod beings before... Example: Here's something from a National Geographic (February 2004) article on ancient China; guess what Discworld connection came to mind? "...a remarkable device was installed in the Bureau of Astronomy and Calendar. Six feet wide, it looked like a bronze jar. Eight dragon heads were placed around its upper part. Beneath each was a bronze toad. If the jar felt an earthquake's tremor, even a faint one, a ball dropped from a dragon into a toad's mouth. The genius of this, the ancestor of all seismographs, was that the ball dropped in the direction from which the tremor came, thanks to a mechanism inside the jar." So there you have it. Terry Pratchett is either a genius (correction: more of a genius than I first suspected) or owns a time machine. Possibly both. I'm not about to rule out the chance that he's an alien pod being either.
*
* From: "Sarah Simonds" <>
*
I just wanted to let you and all the other Discworld Monthly
readers know that Mr. Pratchett was mentioned in the "Who Reads
What" list. A story on the list can be found at
http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/books/04/15/who.reads.what.ap/index.html
The section on him is:
Romance novelist Jennifer Crusie called fellow author Terry Pratchett "my comfort read" and said she was so amazed by Pratchett's "Feet of Clay" that she re-read it the next day.
DWM replies: Funky gets this month's Letter of the Month.
*
* From: "Dave Nicholson" <>
*
In Nanny Ogg's cookbook there is a section on etiquette. On
smoking she says that where it is forbidden it is etiquette to lie
on the floor and puff the smoke up the chimney. In my researches
to find the wackier side of the history of Windsor Castle I found
that Queen Victoria banned smoking in the Castle apart from in the
billiard room. One guest, a Count Harzfeld did not want to walk to
the other end of the massive castle so... lay on the floor and
puffed his cigar smoke up the chimney. (Source Windsor Castle by
Christopher Hibbert)
*
* From: "David A Harvey" <>
*
I meant to mail you about this earlier but real life got in the way
(doesn`t it always). A while ago Lidl (a chain of economy
supermarkets run by a German company) advertised in their weekly
specials that they would be selling Scumble. Further examination
indicated that this is a German wood preservative to paint on
fences, sheds etc. The only thing that shows that this isn't
Discworld scumble is that it comes in a metal container.
*
* From: "Rosa Morley Souter" <>
*
I was listening to the Sunday repeat of the News Quiz and Linda
Smith pointed out that most liberal type men seem to have the same
kind of beard. She went on to describe the Archbishop of
Canterbury's beard as 'somewhere between Terry Pratchett and Harold
Shipman'. With that comforting thought Adious.
*
* From: "Irina Solomon-Dalah" <>
*
I've read the idea about Lord Vetinari being a vampire. It shocked
me at the beginning that anyone might think that, but your
arguments are compelling.
However, I don't think he is. Here's why:
1) In 'Night Watch' there is a reference to his youth in the Guild of Assassins;
2) Somewhere (I think 'Guards! Guards!') there is a reference to his eating bread and drinking water;
3) In 'Men At Arms' he gets worse by inhaling arsenic and gets better with Jimmy Folsom's horse medicine;
4) In 'The Truth' his dog waffles shows him great loyalty (and even if a vampire would take a liking to a dog, I think all folklore is hinting to the fact that the dog would not take a linking to the vampire);
5) Less obvious, but I think that in 'Reaper Man' he would have known where all the weird phenomena come from - the un-dead in Reg Shoe's club seem to know.
I thought of a different intriguing aspect of his behaviour: would he chose his replacement, when the time comes?
He seems to know everything that is happening and "he'll tolerate everything apart from anything that will hurt the city" so it is very likely he would know when his end will come (retirement or otherwise).
He isn't the type to do anything as crass as name a successor, but he's just "dastardly" enough to manipulate his successor into position, don't you think?
| P | H | M | O | R | P | O | R | K | E | V | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | R | W | E | I | I | W | G | Y | T | H | A |
| E | I | S | M | N | G | A | S | P | O | D | E |
| A | H | R | S | C | D | E | A | G | E | O | F |
| V | E | W | E | E | L | T | A | R | G | A | M |
| Y | A | X | A | W | R | E | H | T | A | E | W |
| B | N | G | A | I | O | C | I | U | G | C | A |
| B | G | A | C | N | W | L | N | N | G | A | T |
| O | U | I | F | D | C | S | F | A | U | R | C |
| N | A | I | E | F | S | O | U | O | L | R | H |
| N | C | A | O | V | I | M | E | S | W | O | E |
| I | T | A | W | N | D | T | A | T | A | T | O |
| H | K | N | A | N | N | S | M | M | G | N | E |
Words to find: ANGUA, ANKH, CARROT, DEATH, DISCWORLD, ERIC, ESME, GASPODE, GYTHA, LANCRE, LUGGAGE, MAGRAT, MORPORK, NOBBY, OGG, PATRICIAN, RINCEWIND, SUSAN, TIFFANY, TWOFLOWER, VIMES, WATCH and WEATHERWAX.
The results, as always, appear at the end of this issue.
Friday 30th April
1.00pm Borders, Birmingham
6.00pm Waterstones, Stratford on Avon
Saturday 1st May
12.00noon Same Day Books, Windsor
4.45pm Foyles, Charing Cross Road, London
Tuesday 4th May
12.30pm Methvens, Worthing
4.45pm W.H.Smith, Brighton
Wednesday 5th May
12.45pm Waterstones, Winchester
5.00pm Ottakars, Portsmouth
1. How much does a Josh Kirby Pyramids print cost at Bonsai Trading?
2. How much is Bonsai Trading selling the Pyramids set of Clarecraft
figures for in their special offers section?
For more information about Bonsai Trading's extensive range of Discworld products visit http://bonsai.discworldmonthly.org
The Discworld Conventions are great opportunities to meet up with other Discworld fans and a friendly environment and also get to meet up with Discworld celebrities such as Bernard Pearson, Paul Kirby, Stephen Briggs and of course Terry Pratchett.
You will also get the opportunity to take part in various events such as Thud tournaments, juggling workshops, a Discworld version of the Eurovision song contest, interviews with the guests, maskerades and many other activities.
The Convention hotel can accommodate around 750 members. If you are planning to visit I suggest you book soon to avoid disappointment.
For more information about the Convention visit http://www.dwcon.org/
We hope to be able to bring you more information about the Convention over the next few months.
As Death's servant Albert seems to be primarily responsible for taking care of the needs of other living creatures in Death's home, such as human visitors, the bees and Binky. His main duty in Mort is to cook breakfast with an incredible amount of grease, although you don't need to worry about healthy eating in a place where you can't die or, apparently, put on weight. Pedants will note, however, that Death's daughter Ysabell enjoyed chocolates and was somewhat plump so perhaps one's body adopts the proportions indicated by one's 'morphic field' or something.
When circumstances drive Albert to return to the world in Mort, he undoubtedly relishes the chance to use magic again and generally lord it over lesser wizards at Unseen University. Taking a dislike to the statue of himself, his first act on returning to the Disc is to destroy it, leading the wizards who subsequently see him to think the statue has come to life to wreak revenge for years of graffiti and unfortunate toilet incidents.
Albert quickly discovers that his bar tab from circa two thousand years ago is still being held at the Drum - unluckily for the landlord, who is summarily turned into a toad. Needless to say, the Faculty - and probably the landlord of the Drum - are glad to see Albert reluctantly returned to his place at Death's side.
Albert only has limited time available to him on the Disc. Bit by bit he is using up this short supply, for example when he adopts the role of Uncle Heavy to assist Death in impersonating the Hogfather. Mortality is of particular concern to Albert, though, because he fears that in his days as a great wizard he made enemies who might still be waiting for him on the other side.
There is more to Albert than just a crotchety old man who loves a fry-up. At times he encapsulates that particular human state where one is trapped by one's own fear. He would love to return to 'real' life but dare not do so. Despite being the greatest wizard on the Disc, he is ultimately a tragic, or even slightly pathetic, figure, constantly living in Death's shadow without ever really facing him.
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* Latest Book Information *
Discworld paperback: Night Watch http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0552148997/87
Discworld hardback: Monstrous Regiment http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385603401/87
New Discworld Young Adult: A Hat Full of Sky (May 2004) http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385607369/87
Current Discworld Young Adult: The Wee Free Men http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385605331/87
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* Disc Trivia Results *
I am pretty sure I have removed all non-relevant characters but it's sometimes hard to tell.
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| . | . | R | S | C | D | . | A | . | E | . | . |
| . | . | . | E | E | L | T | A | R | G | A | M |
| Y | A | X | A | W | R | E | H | T | A | E | W |
| B | N | G | . | I | O | C | . | . | G | C | A |
| B | G | A | C | N | W | L | N | . | G | A | T |
| O | U | I | F | D | C | S | F | A | U | R | C |
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| . | T | . | . | . | D | T | . | . | A | T | . |
| H | K | N | A | . | . | . | . | . | . | N | . |
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