Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 1 April 2010.
A writer who had more titles on the BBC’s Big Read Top 100 than any other living author, only Charles Dickens matched him. At the start Pratchett was categorised comic fantasy for he sets his Discworld books in an alternative universe and peoples them with witches, wizards and the like. It is a stage upon which he places his players in situations that enables him to mirror our world and therefore pinpoint its faults, idiosyncratic traits, ludicrous bureaucracy or just plain prejudices, injustices, stupidity and the like, i.e. he has developed into one of the most important satirists writing today. This astute masterpiece tears into the postal service. Truth did the same for the newspaper industry. Monstrous Regiment is one of the best books on war and gender you are likely to come across. He is a man who needs reading. His next Discworld, Thud, comes into hardback at the same time.
'Always push your luck because no one else would push it for you.'
Imprisoned in Ankh-Morpork, con artist Moist von Lipwig is offered a choice: to be executed or to accept a job as the city's Postmaster General.
It's a tough decision, but he's already survived one hanging and isn't in the mood to try it again.
The Post Office is down on its luck: beset by mountains of undelivered mail, eccentric employees, and a dangerous secret order. To save his skin, Moist will need to restore the postal service to its former glory, with the help of tough talking activist Adora Belle Dearheart. Who happens to be very attractive, in an 'entire womanful of anger' kind of way.
But there's new technology to compete against and an evil chairman who will stop at nothing to delay Ankh-Morpork's post for good . . .
'One of the best expressions of his unstoppable flow of comic invention' The Times
Going Postal is the first book in the Moist von Lipwig series, but you can read the Discworld novels in any order.
‘Pratchett’s joy in his creations, in jokes, puns, the idea of letters and language itself, makes Going Postal one of the best expressions of his unstoppable flow of comic invention’ The Times
‘With all the puns, strange names and quick-fire jokes about captive letters demanding to be delivered, it’s easy to miss how cross with injustice Pratchett can be. This darkness and concrete morality sets his work apart from imitators of his English Absurd school of comic fantasy’
Guardian
Author
About Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett(1948 - 2015) was born in 1948 in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. He had his first story published when he was just thirteen, and after leaving school at seventeen to become a journalist he continued writing, publishing his first novel, The Carpet People, in 1971 and going on to produce the phenomenally successful Discworld and his trilogy for young readers, The Bromeliad. His first Discworld novel for children, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents was awarded the 2001 Carnegie Medal.
Terry Pratchett as well as numerous other books, winning many awards and becoming the UK’s bestselling author. He was appointed OBE in 1998.
He died in March 2015 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. You can find out more about his life and work at www.terrypratchettbooks.com
