Articles - Better Than a Poke in the Eye

A much-anticipated annual series from Harper Perennial, Olive Editions are exclusive small-format publications of some of their bestselling and celebrated titles, featuring unique, hand-drawn cover illustrations.

The series debuted in 2008 and every fall since (with the exception of 2012, 2013, and 2023), they have published eight new books in the series.

• Guards ! Guards! By Terry Pratchett
• Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Island by Aldous Huxley
• Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
• The Princess Bride by William Goldman
• The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker
• Highfire by Eoin Colfer
• The World Wasn’t Ready for You by Justin Key

Modiphius the creators of the TTRPG that blew up Kickstarter and is due to be delivered imminently have been busy working on a card game and a board game.

We have some details and photos of both games which were announced at the recent UKGE (UK Games Expo) in Birmingham.

We visited Milford Haven in deepest West Wales to see Vision Arts latest Pratchett production of Night Watch. This is one of Terry's darkest novels and a hard one to bring to life, with a large cast and large scenes it would be interesting to see how they pulled everything together.

We were very impressed with director Adam Edgerley's vision and the effort put in by the full cast and crew.

A number of our campers have sent us reviews of Llamedos Holiday Camp. We reproduce them here in full.

Terry started naming Discworld Years back in 2004 and before his passing provided Rob Wilkins a list of future years.

Our roving Reporter Andrea Richardson bravely travelled to London's O2 to witness a live playthrough of Modiphius' Adventures in Ankh-Morpork Hogswatch adventure.

Game Master Andy Farrant lead a group of seasoned role players on an adventure to save Hogswatch.

Find out what a D12 is and what a Games Master actually does in her review.

We include not one but two reviews of Stephen Briggs' latest Terry Pratchett stage adaption A Trip On The Stage.

Get some balance between the two ... sometimes they agree and other times there are differences.

Which side will you believe?!

Roving reporters Elaine and Tony visited JKL Drama in Doncaster for their very festive production of Terry Pratchett's Hogfather

We visited the Fantasy Forest event at Sudeley castle in July and brought our Portal to Discworld with us. Over the course of the weekend we had hundreds of fans visit our marquee. Where we all talked about Terry and spoke his name.

When we found out Vision Arts we doing Men at Arms we jumped at the opportunity to pop down to see their production. Previously we really enjoyed their production of Wyrd Sisters and wondered how they would follow it up.

Men at Arms isn't an easy play to put on and we applaud Vision arts and directors Adam Edgerley and Sarah Rosser for keeping the production tight, fast and very funny.

The Amazing Maurice 2 - The Waters of Life, the squeakquel to the beautifully animated Sky Original The Amazing Maurice has had an update in its race to be produced. We have concept artwork and the plot of this new film.

Having been a fan of the Hunger Games novel I was pleased to be gifted the 5th book in the series.

Going back to the 50th Hunger Games and finding out much more about Haymitch Abernathy who you will remember as the drunken mentor of Katness Everdeen and Peeta Mellark in the earlier books.

Sunrise on the Reaping digs deep into Haymitch's life, loves etc. and we get to see what drives him to become the person we think we know.

On Monday 28th April 2025 (a day that should have been Terry Pratchett's 77th birthday) we headed into London to see Marc Burrows' The Magic of Terry Pratchett with special guests.

The first part (the bit with the powerpoint presentation) took around an hour and finished with a strange AI version of Terry reading from his essay about living your life well. I'm glad to say AI still has a very long way to go to be convincing.

After a short intermission we were entertained by a Q&A session hosted by Dan Schreiber. Dan was there to interview Marc but also the guests of honour which were Terry's daughter Rhianna Pratchett and Terry's business manager and current head of the Pratchett estate Rob Wilkins.

We visited Cardiff to see Peculiar Productions' production of Terry Pratchett's Maskerade. The opera came to the Discworld and we were very impressed. Excellent production values and a very talented cast made this hugely entertaining.

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.

We had the pleasure of visiting the Progress Theatre in the middle of February to see their final production of Terry Pratchett's Night Watch as adapted by Stephen Briggs and directed by Chris Moran.

We've enjoyed some of the Progress Theatre's previous Pratchett productions and really enjoyed Night Watch. John Goodman's portrayal of Sam Vimes / John Keel was very impressive.

Paul Kidby (Discworld Cover Artist), in conversation with Duncan Walker. Saturday 25th January at Salisbury Museum.

Duncan Walker is Lead Curator at the Russell Coates Museum in Bournemouth and seemed to be a natural at interviewing. The conversation started with slides showing Paul as a child and they began by talking about how he first got into illustration, from working in false teeth manufacturing, to painting roller blinds, and finally breaking into commercial illustration.

The slides then moved to showing pages from his latest book “Designing Terry Pratchett’s Discworld” and Paul talked about how he came to work with Terry.

Night Watch will become a penguin classic in April.

The Penguin Classics series includes the best of world literature, across genres, countries and centuries. Terry Pratchett joins a long and illustrious line of literature's greats – a hugely welcome acknowledgement of the brilliance of Sir Terry's literary canon.

Night Watch exemplifies Terry at his finest – with Commander Sam Vimes facing bloody revolutions and corruption, the novel satirises political power, while proving profoundly empathetic, encompassing the importance of community, connection, and the tenacity of the human spirit.

A Blink of the Screen will be re-released on 3rd April 2025 with a new cover to match style of A Stroke of the Pen.

Book news: A Tale of Wizards and Dragons (A collection of 3 Knight-Time stories taken from Dragons at Crumbling Castle and The Witch's Vacuum Cleaner)

Designing Terry Pratchett's Discworld talks about the process of extracting images from Terry Practhett's imagination and bringing them to life.

A very enjoyable production from a company that really understood Terry Pratchett. We look forward to Feet of Clay in June 2025.

We attented a fun and interesting evening with Rob Wilkins and guest Marc Burrows at Waterstones in Bristol on 3rd December 2024

Review of the new Rivers of London novella The Masquerades of Spring by Ben Aaronovitch. This time set in 1920s swinging New York.

We review Studio Theatre Club's matinee performance of Witches Abroad as adapted by Stephen Briggs at the Unicorn Theatre, Abingdon

UK television series Ghosts goes global with German and Australian Adaptations alongside the current US series.

Amazon Prime has confirmed details of the third and final season of Good Omens with a one off ninety minute episode.

A lively and very funny adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters performed by Vision Arts Theatre in Milford Haven.

PurpleFeather reviews a live production of Carpe Jugulum performed by Circle Players in October 2024

Review of Terry Pratchett's Feet of Clay adapted by Stephen Briggs and performed by Peculiar Productions - July / August 2024, Cardiff

Forbidden Planet have just released a new range of Good Omens Merchandise. Get your coasters, pin badges and t-shirts now.

The Unholy Duo Face Armageddon Once More: Good Omens to Return for Ineffable Third and Final Season on Prime Video - Press Release

The long awaited sequel to Shades of Grey is finally getting released in February 2024 and Jasper Fforde is heading out on a signing tour for Red Side Story.

We review A Stroke of the Pen - The Lost Stories. A collection of short stories written by Terry Pratchett in the late 70s under a pseudonym.

Review of Monstrous Productions / Peculiar Productions performance of Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment in Cardiff

Review of Marc Burrows' one off special performance of his Magic of Terry Pratchett show in London's Bloomsbury Theatre.

A Brief History of The Watch TV Series development. All the news about the TV Series, its cast and development since its inception in 2011.

Transworld has acquired an unmissable collection of recently rediscovered short stories by the late Sir Terry Pratchett. The collection, titled A Stroke of the Pen: The Lost Stories, will be published on 5th October 2023.

Sir Terry Pratchett has been named one of the 100 Great Westerners by Great Western Railway.

The 100 Great Westerners is about celebrating what makes the region and communities we live and work in great – its people. The communities that have grown around the great iconic Great Western network have been shaped by so many inspirational individuals and organisations.

Jason and Rachel discuss the contents of the documentary Terry Pratchett: Back in Black. Terry's words are performed by Paul Kaye. The documentary features talking heads from friends, family and fans.

I originally wrote this article for Locus Magazine in the US for their April 2008 issue as part of their 25 years of Discworld celebration. I was contacted by Locus and asked if I would be willing to write a short article about what Terry and Discworld meant to me. It was a huge honour to be asked.