Newsfeed - Better Than a Poke in the Eye

[Weekly Roundup] Week ending 05-10-2026

New Events

• Going Postal - Social Reading in England (5th October 2026)

• Going Postal in England (February 2027)

• Celebrate The Discworld Bestiary at Waterstones Piccadilly in England (Friday 16th October 2026)

• Rob Wilkins on Terry Pratchett's The Discworld Bestiary in England (Thursday 15th October 2026)

• Rob Wilkins The Discworld Bestiary at Stratford upon-Avon Literary Festival in England (Sunday 1st November 2026)

• Designing Terry Pratchett’s Discworld: 30 Years of Paul Kidby’s Illustrations in England (7th October - 28th November)

• Paul Kidby: The Discworld Bestiary in England (23rd January - 20th March 2027)

• Hogfather in USA (2nd - 4th October 2026)

Articles

• [Book News] Illumicrate Exclusive Death Collection

[Book Release News] The Discworld Bestiary

Illustrated by Paul Kidby

Step into the weird and wonderful world of Sir Terry Pratchett's iconic Discworld universe with this fully illustrated guide to its most curious, dangerous, and downright baffling creatures. Discover the best way to care for the Terrible Man-Eating Sloth of Clup, the eating habits of the Ambiguous Puzuma, and marvel at the startling prevalence of ominous ducks in cosmic matters. Wriggling with insights and crawling with wisdom, The Discworld Bestiary is packed with extra advice from Rincewind, Unseen University's latest (and reluctant) adjunct professor of Perplexing Beasts and curator of its Curiobiological Museum.

With beautiful illustrations - including new artwork - from Paul Kidby

• Publisher : Doubleday
• ISBN : 9780857529497
• R.R.P.: £30
• Release Date : 15th October 2026

Available to pre-order now from our Bookshop or from any of our affiliate links.

Better Than a Poke Bookshop

Amazon UK

Waterstones Standard Edition

Waterstones Signed Bookplate Edition

[Review] International Discworld Convention 2026

In August we joined up with 800+ Discworld fans for the International Discworld Convention 2026. We really enjoyed spending time with friends but were disappointed with the hotel.

[Read our review of the 2026 Convention]

[Book Release News] Night Watch - Special Hardback Edition with cover art by Joe Bundock

A beautiful hardback gift edition of Night Watch, Terry Pratchett's celebrated Discworld novel featuring Commander Sam Vimes.

Earlier this year Penguin Random House ran The Penguin Cover Design Award - an opportunity to take on the role of a book cover designer and build a budding illustrators portfolio. Entrants must not have been professional illustrators or designers.

The Adult category was to design a cover for Night Watch by Terry Pratchett and was won by Joe Bundock, a student at Leeds Arts University.

First prize was a six-month-long mentorship programme with a member of the Penguin Art Department and a Wacom Intuos Pro Medium tablet and Penguin books to the value of £100. Penguin were so impressed by Joe's entry that this special edition was produced as a result.

Rob Wilkins, Director of the Terry Pratchett Estate and a judge on this year's award, said: “I was so impressed with how Joe engaged with the brief and captured the spirit of Terry's work."

For Joe, it's a first cover commission with a rather large name attached: “Knowing my artwork will illustrate the work of someone as monumental to fantasy as Sir Terry Pratchett is an honour beyond words. I hope the design serves as a tribute to such a brilliant author and series.”

This beautiful special hardback edition also features foiled detailing and printed endpapers, a beautiful gift for any Night Watch fan.

• Publisher : Doubleday
• ISBN : 9781807844981
• R.R.P : £25
• Release Date : 29 October 2026

Available to pre-order now from our Bookshop or from any of our affiliate links.

Better Than a Poke Bookshop

Amazon UK

Waterstones

[Book Release News] Tales of Mistletoe and Mischief

By Terry Pratchett, illustrated by Mark Beech

With full-colour illustrations, this book is perfect for introducing young readers to the festive world of master storyteller Sir Terry Pratchett. Discover four festive and funny tales of yuletide computers and abominable snow-babies! With full colour illustrations by Mark Beech

• Uncover who is wearing a fake Father Christmas beard!
• Meet the only computer to ask for presents!
• Help to care for an abominable snow-baby!
• Count the number of gifts given at Christmas!

All four of these stories were previously published in Father Christmas's Fake Beard.

• Father Christmas's Fake Beard
• The Computer who Wrote to Father Christmas
• The Abominable Snow-baby
• The Twelve Gifts of Christmas

• Publisher : Puffin
• ISBN : 9780241803325
• R.R.P. : £8.99
• Release date : 24th September 2026

Available now from our Bookshop or from any of our affiliate links.

Better Than a Poke Bookshop

Amazon UK

Waterstones

[REVIEW] Shakespeare Codex - Live in Twickenham

Roving reporter Andrea Richardson visited Twickenham to see Stephen Briggs' play The Shakespeare Codex performed by Richmond Shakespeare Society.

[Read Shakespeare Codex Review]

[DISCWORLD: ADVENTURES IN LANCRE & ÜBERWALD]

The second Discworld roleplaying game crowdfunding campaign is coming to Gamefound, transporting you to iconic locations beyond Ankh-Morpork!

In Terry Pratchett's Discworld: Adventures in Lancre & Überwald, you'll run wild across and around[1] the magic-infused Ramtop Mountains and Lancre, the — in a word — gothic Überwald, and all the way up on the downland of the Chalk!

With whom will you be running wild? Oh, all sorts. You can create Witches, Vampires, Dwarfs, Trolls, Werewolves, Pictsies, or anything else your grubby little brain-folds can squelch up[2].

Intended for a single beleaguered Gamemaster and 1-6 fancy-pants players, Discworld: Adventures in Lancre & Überwald is powered by the chaotic, pun-filled Narrativium system and has all the core rules you need!

Whether it's running tests, challenges, character creation, or the brand-spanking new Witch Magic system[3], the extensive GMing advice will help veterans and newbies alike run uniquely Discworld adventures!

[1] Maybe even below and above. Look, it's your game. The Pratchett police aren't watching. Do what you want.
[2] Up to and including vampire watermelons! You heard!
[3] Including Headology!

It looks like this campaign will be going live in October!

To follow the campaign head to : Game Found

[Disc-tober 2026 is coming]

It's that time of year where we don our thinking caps and put together Disc-tober's art challenge list!

We've run a yearly Disc-tober art challenge for the last 6 years and this year our prompts are various book titles from Terry's bibliography!

We thought the words alone would conjure up some amazing thoughts and the creatives amongst you would have a field day coming up with artworks based upon them.

For those who are not familiar with our art challenge, we encourage fans of Terry Pratchett's works to create a piece of visual art based on our daily prompts. We publish a list of prompts for every day of October. It's a way to pass the time and have a go at producing something possibly a little out of your comfort zone. We don't judge the artwork, we just enjoy seeing it!

The rules are simple.

• Read the prompt of the day.
• Produce a piece of visual artwork inspired by that prompt.
• Enjoy the process - it doesn't have to be a Rembrandt!
• No AI
• Share your artwork publicly using the #disctober and #disctober2026

That's it.

Here is the full list in text form:

1. The Colour of Magic
2. The Light Fantastic
3. Equal Rites
4. Sourcery
5. Pyramids
6. Moving Pictures
7. Witches Abroad 7a. Small Gods
8. Lords and Ladies
9. Men at Arms
10. Soul Music
11. Interesting Times
12. The Truth
13. Thief of Time
14. The Last Hero
15. Night Watch
16. A Hat Full of Sky
17. Going Postal
18. Thud!
19. Making Money
20. I Shall Wear Midnight
21. Snuff
22. Raising Steam
23. The Shepherd's Crown
24. Strata
25. Elves Nasty or Nice?
26. Mr Bunnsy Has An Adventure
27. Where's My Cow?
28. The Arte of Falconry and Hawking
29. Shaking Hands with Death
30. World of Poo

Enjoy and have fun!

[Discworld Bestiary Event]

Waterstones Piccadilly will be hosting an evening to celebrate Terry Pratchett's, The Discworld Bestiary with illustrator Paul Kidby & Rob Wilkins, director of the Terry Pratchett estate. The pair will be in conversation with journalist and author Kat Brown.

An absolute must for all fans of Terry Pratchett's iconic Discworld series, this beautiful book is a fully realised guide to Sir TerryPratchett's world. The bestiary is full of the creatures and critters of Discworld, packed with wisdom from the great minds of the Disc, as well as interjections from some of its more unconventional thinkers. All of this, of course, has been illustrated by Paul Kidby, long-time collaborator of the Pratchett estate.

Paul Kidby worked as a commercial artist before becoming a freelance illustrator in 1996. In the late '80s and early '90s Paul created hundreds of designs for video game packaging and magazine covers, including iconic pieces such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Mortal Kombat, Batman, and Earthworm Jim. Paul is best known for being the illustrator for award-winning author Sir Terry Pratchett and has designed the Discworld book jackets since 2002.

Rob Wilkins worked with Terry Pratchett for more than twenty years, first as his personal assistant and later as his business manager. He now manages the Pratchett literary estate and Terry's production company, Narrativia.

Please note: Book and ticket option includes a copy of The Discworld Bestiary (RRP. £30) which will be available for collection on the night.

For enquires and accessability requests please email Events.Piccadilly@waterstones.com

More details and tickets are available from Waterstones website

[NEW BOOKS] Five new Death book editions

Priced at £135 plus shipping for the five Death series books, it has a heavy price tag but we are sure it will be worth it.

Hopefully we'll get our hands on a set to do a full review before they are released on the world next May/June 2027.

From Illumicrate:

After much discussing and planning, we're delighted to have these editions become reality. The Discworld is an enormously beloved universe, earning its author the unverifiable title of "Most Stolen Author" from bookshops. The Death series holds a particularly special place in the heart of many of our team, and we're delighted to share our tribute to these books with you.

This collection will include the entirety of the Death series: Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music, Hogfather and Thief of Time. The full designs will be revealed at the sale start, but we will be teasing elements between now and 1st October!

Our Illumicrate Exclusive: Terry Pratchett Death Collection will be available as an OPEN PREORDER.

The open preorder period will start on 1st October at 3pm BST (UK/INT) | 10 am ET (US/CAN) and will run until 26th November at 3pm GMT (UK/INT) | 10 am ET (US/CAN).

NEW: To receive notifications about artwork updates and sale alerts for this set, sign up at: Illumicrate Website.

Please note: As this is an open preorder period, there will be no presale.

The set will be priced at £135 GBP / $186 USD + shipping and VAT/tax if applicable.

Shipping:

This comes under our 'Five books' shipping category. Our shipping rates can be found on our website. It is expected to ship in May/June 2027.

We hope you're as excited as we are!